Cameron's Christmas pt 3
by Orffyreus
Summary: With Christmas Day finally having arrived the Connors get to unpack their presents at last. Will John and Cameron's secret wish remain a dream or will Christmas bring a change of heart to Sarah and Derek?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note:

This is the third and final part of my Christmas story, continuing from where we left off in part two. You should have read part one and two for this to make any sense. And don't forget that the last two episodes of season 2 never happened here.

**Cameron's Christmas  
>(part three)<strong>

**Chapter One**

The polished surface of the door stared back at the future saviour of mankind, beckoning him, daunting him. It had all been too good to be true. How could be have expected her to feel the same? How could he have expected her to stay with him, to watch over him, to guard him as he fell asleep, just because he had watched over her?  
>A chasm opened up inside him and he gulped, trying to force down the sudden ill feelings he had towards her. Feelings that made no sense whatsoever.<br>Cameron was only doing her duty after all, eliminating a security risk, ensuring his safety as always.  
><em>She's doing it for me…<em>

Again and again he told himself that same line before he finally got into bed and pulled the sheets over himself. It was colder than before. The wind pressed against the windows, causing them to rattle. John shivered. The storm Cameron had anticipated had not broken loose yet. What if it were to turn into another blizzard? She would be out there all alone in that cold snow…  
><em>I should have gone with her…<em>

Staring at the ceiling and praying that Cameron would really be careful, he eventually drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

…

The grandfather clock striking two made John sit bolt upright in bed. He poked his head out between the bed curtains and studied the clock.  
><em>Is it really only two o'clock?…<em>

He couldn't make out the clock's hands because the room was too dark. The candles had gone out and it was dead quiet, apart from the loud ticking of the ancient timepiece. John thought he could see the pendulum swinging backwards and forwards on its relentless path. Squinting at it through the darkness, he could have sworn it resembled a hand. A metal hand balled into a fist made of pistons and levers.  
><em>Strange…<em>

Shaking his head in disbelief and drawing the curtains, John climbed back under his blanket and closed his eyes with a contented sigh.  
>Suddenly he heard it. A muffled sound coming from somewhere outside his room. He strained his ears. It sounded like metal on metal, as if someone were beating a nightstick against the bars of a prison cell.<br>Growing louder and more pronounced the noise now became clearer. It sounded like footsteps. Metal feet on a metal floor.  
><em>Wonder what floor polish Mom's been using again…<em>

The heavy footfalls gradually, yet purposefully approached the door to his room in equally measured steps. Then they halted. He could sense a presence behind the door, something vast, powerful, and yet strangely human.  
>Without warning, his bed curtains were yanked apart. An unearthly blue glow shone through the crack under the door as the knob was turned from the outside. Something was there, about to come in.<br>_It must be Mom with the turkey…_

The door burst open, crashing into the wall, bits of plaster spraying out in all directions, and covering John in fine white dust.  
>A bubble of blue light slowly floated into the room, hovering inches from the ground and bathing everything in its beautiful bluish-white glow. Crackling and hissing, it approached John who watched it breathlessly from the comfort of his bed.<br>With a crack of thunder, the bubble disrupted and the room was bathed in total blackness.

"Where are we?" John asked.

"In your room" Cameron said.

She opened her hand and revealed a tiny grain of dust, which glowed golden and lit up their faces. "That's all what's left of it."

"What is it?" John said curiously, as he studied the minute speck of light.

"Your phone. That's all what's left of it" she breathed. "Give me your hand."

He extended his hand and she carefully tipped the dust-like object into his palm.  
>"You'll have to give it a new name now."<p>

John considered it for a while. There really wasn't much left to rename.  
>"Oh well" he shrugged, dropping the glowing grain onto the floor and stamping it out.<br>"No point in giving it a new name anymore now. Thanks all the same for fetching it for me."

He took her by the hand and led her over to the bed, stopping to light his bedside candle. He then lay down and pulled the blankets over himself. Cameron stood watching him with that scrutinizing habit of hers, her head slightly tilted.

"Did you change?" he inquired, noticing her pale blue sun dress.

"It's hot out" she simply said, slowly advancing on him and gracefully kneeling down on the edge of the bed beside him, placing her hands in her lap.

"Yeah" John confirmed. "It usually is out there in the bush. I told you to be careful."

"I was" she smiled, reaching behind herself and pulling out a straw hat and a pair of ridiculously large sunglasses from nowhere. "I didn't get another sunstroke."

"Good" he nodded appreciatively. "Because I wouldn't want to loose you again."

"We all loose people we love" Cameron stated sadly, regarding him with huge eyes full of remorse.

John was taken aback. "How would you know that?" he asked, not believing she would be able to understand the concept of loss, yet alone of love.

"We talk about it a lot in the future" she whispered, as she climbed over him, kneeling on either side of his hips.

"We do?" he asked unbelievingly.

"We do. We will."

John was still unconvinced. "But you never lost anyone."

"I lost you" she breathed, leaning towards him.

"Oh yeah, that's because I sent you back away from me, right?" he realized.

"No. You didn't send me away" she replied, placing her hand over his heart.  
>"I came across time for you, John. I love you. I always have."<p>

Cameron lowered her head over his, her curtain of silky hair obscuring everything from his view apart from her shining eyes and her moist, expectant lips so close to his.

_Mmh, water lilies…_

…

The house was dead quiet as Cameron reached the foot of the stairs. She didn't bother to turn on the hall lights; it was much easier to switch to night vision. And even if she was not about to admit it to herself, the darkness itself comforted her, hiding her tears from view as it did.

Not that there was anyone around to notice the lone cyborg with the tear-streaked face. The Connor family members were all asleep. Sarah in her bedroom, Derek probably in the spare room on his old couch and John…

A fresh tear trickled down her cheek as she remembered the look on John's face, concern and shock etched all over it as she had closed the door and just left him standing there. She hadn't wanted to leave him, but there was no other way she could have been able to achieve what she was about to do. It was complicated.

Just as she reached the front door she heard the sound of a car pulling into the drive. Cameron rushed into the kitchen and hurried over to the sink, yanking open the doors of the cupboard underneath and retrieving a gun from the concealed stash. She had completely forgotten about her own gun, the one she had thrown to John before she had shut down.  
><em>It must be somewhere in John's room…<em>

Positioning herself a few feet away from the front door in the middle of the hall, Cameron stood stock still, her expression blank, waiting to greet the obvious intruder in her own special way.  
>She heard the car draw up outside, the sound of the engine being turned off, and then the crunching of footsteps in the snow.<p>

Cameron tilted her head. Her HUD showed the pattern of the footsteps to match Sarah Connor's. But Sarah had gone to bed over an hour ago. And it could not be a Triple Eight impostor because its weight would have created a different audiometric pattern.

The gun in her hand shook slightly as she considered further damage to her system.  
><em>No. John was right. My system is operating at 100%. This must be Sarah…<em>

The footsteps trailed off towards the garden shed, followed by the sound of muffled, yet raised voices. Then they returned at a slower pace, as if the person were carrying something, and headed for the porch.

_The voice patterns match Derek Reese and Sarah Connor_, Cameron concluded rather puzzled.

The beeping of the burglar alarm's panel and the following noise of a key being turned in the lock prompted Cameron to lower her gun. No Triple Eight would bother to unlock a door, if it were on a termination mission. She knew that herself.

The front door swung open and the hall light was switched on. After an initial shriek Sarah dropped an armful of Christmas presents all over the floor.

"What on earth are you doing here? Do you have to stand in the dark like a statue?" she spluttered, gasping for breath.

Then she noticed the damp streaks on the cyborg's cheeks and squinted at her, not believing her eyes.

"Is there anything wrong?" she asked, walking over to a still motionless Cameron, before adding on an afterthought "Where's John?"

"John has gone to bed" Cameron said irritably, and sounding quite distraught.

Her tone did not go unnoticed by Sarah. Raising an eyebrow, she considered the cyborg for a while, taking in the damp cheeks, the wide-eyed blank stare and the general state of melancholy that seemed to emanate from the machine.

"You two haven't been … quarrelling, have you?" she asked gently with the typical insight only a parent can have.

Cameron was surprised at Sarah's behaviour. When it was usually and understandably only John this and John that with her, she now seemed concerned not only about her son, but also about the cyborg girl standing in front of her with a rather forlorn air.

Not really knowing why she was doing it, Cameron strode over to the front door and closed it, before bending down and gathering up the haphazard pile of parcels.  
>"No" she said, not looking at Sarah. "We have not had a disagreement. It's just—"<p>

She broke off and busied herself with placing the parcels on the sideboard where she remained standing, facing the wall. Sarah approached her and stood beside her, her primal maternal instincts in conflict with a deep conviction nurtured in long years of being on the run from metal.

Hesitantly, apprehensively, Sarah lightly placed her hand on Cameron's shoulder.  
>"What is it, Cameron?"<p>

Evidently, carting a dysfunctional cyborg through the streets at Christmas, hearing her son spill out his heart to that same cyborg and sensing that the machine's care for her son was somehow a little more than a mere mission parameter, had fundamentally altered Sarah's attitude towards her.

Cameron slowly turned her head and stared in astonishment at the woman's hand resting on her shoulder. Sarah withdrew her hand and took a step backwards.  
>Turning around to face her, Cameron tilted her head while trying to read the woman's expression. To her own amazement, she found no trace of insincerity in Sarah's demeanour, only curiosity and, astounding enough, concern.<p>

"I … I think I've hurt John" she said in a constricted voice.

Sarah's mouth flew open and she instantly changed her posture to a defensive one.  
>"You've what?" she asked incredulously, gaping at the cyborg.<p>

Cameron immediately realized her mistake.  
>"No, not like that. I would never… I would die before I'd hurt my John" she blurted out.<br>"I mean, I think I've upset him, caused him discomfort or … pain?"

She glanced at Sarah quizzically, as if she was unsure if she had used the right words.  
>Sarah responded with an unfathomable look, her eyebrows knitted together, as she let Cameron's words sink in.<p>

"What did you just say there?" she inquired pensively, regarding the cyborg like someone being confronted with undeniable evidence.

"I said I think I've caused him pain. Was that bad to say?"

Sarah started to laugh. She couldn't help it. The innocent look on the cyborg's questioning face, the way she had just openly claimed John as hers, it was all too much for her.  
>Shaking her head and tittering, she leant on the sideboard for support. Cameron pouted.<p>

"No" Sarah wheezed. "That was not bad to say. I'm sorry, Cameron."  
>She forced the laughter back down.<br>"How can you be so sure that he is _your_ John?"

"He makes me feel better and I make him feel better" Cameron announced, meticulously going through the wrapped up parcels she had placed on the sideboard and inspecting them.  
><em>I wonder if one of them is for me…<em>

Sighing, Sarah reached out and pulled the parcels towards her and away from Cameron. She then stacked them in her arms and carried them into the dining room, where she placed them under the Christmas tree. Cameron heard her muttering to herself from next door.

"Children. They're all the same. Can't wait until morning."

Acknowledging that it had been a wise decision in the first place to move the presents from under the tree to the garden shed for the rest of the day, and twitching slightly after realizing what she had just said, Sarah returned to the hall.

"How can he make you feel better?" she inquired, leaning against the door frame and genuinely curious as to what a terminator would mean by _feeling better_.  
>"In what sense?"<p>

"Better than I'd feel without him" Cameron replied curtly.

Feeling a little put in her place, Sarah uneasily twiddled the zip of her jacket in her fingers.  
>"I'd better get on with those Christmas tree lights. What were you up to down here anyway?" she asked, remembering that Cameron had been standing in the hall when she had arrived, as if ready to go out.<p>

"I was going to get John's mobile. Leaving it on the common could be a security risk" she said mechanically.

Lying to Sarah made her feel uncomfortable, too. She stiffened, recalling the promise she had made not to lie to John anymore. And she remembered John's obvious dislike of her going out on her own in the cold again.

"You're too late" Sarah declared smugly, sauntering up to the cyborg. Reaching inside her pocket she withdrew John's mobile and threw it to her, a triumphant grin on her face.

Cameron caught it and stared at it transfixed before she gazed at Sarah with a baffled expression.

"I thought you might insist on doing something like that and knowing my son, he would never agree to let you go back there. So I went myself. All I had to do was follow John's footsteps and the marks you left in the snow" Sarah announced proudly before adding softly "I would guess that to be the reason why you two are … upset."

Sarah couldn't believe she was actually having this conversation. Realizing that she was in fact taking the cyborg's feelings into consideration was just a little too weird for her. All those years she had been drumming it into her son that the machines cannot be reasoned with, cannot be trusted and don't have feelings. This was all too much.

"Sarah?"

Cameron's voice brought her out of her reverie. She looked expectantly at the cyborg, nodding at her to continue.

"I lied to you. And to John. I'm sorry. And you were right, that is why he is upset with me. I told him I was going to retrieve his mobile…"

She paused, glancing down at the floor, searching for the right words and thinking about how bizarre it was to be having this conversation with John's mother.

Sarah waited patiently for a while for her to continue. Seeing the hesitation on Cameron's part, she eventually decided the cyborg might be in the need of some reassurance.

"And you would have been right in doing so" she confirmed, eying Cameron's tracksuit and adding "Even though I would have found your choice of clothes a little odd. So where were you planning to go, instead?"

"I was going to make John's Christmas present."

Sarah's jaw dropped.  
>"Come again?" she said, not believing her ears.<p>

"I was going to make John's Christmas present" Cameron repeated, pointing towards the door. "Here, in the shed. I would never have gone back to the common when he told me not to."

Her face fell and she gazed at Sarah with sad eyes. "He should have known that."

Feeling a little unnerved at the baleful look she was receiving from the cyborg, Sarah decided it was time to teach Cameron a few basics of a teenage couple's behaviour.  
><em>I'm actually having this conversation with a machine. I must be loosing it…<em>

"Cameron" she addressed her, not really knowing how to begin. "Misunderstandings do happen. You two have known each other for over a year now, that should help a bit, but you need to know that teenagers often react, well, defiantly if they don't get what they want. And John is only a teenager, you mustn't forget that."

Cameron merely stared unblinkingly at Sarah as she continued.

"I understand that you had to make up a story to get him off your back. And that's what's troubling him, since you two have been a bit like a double act lately. Don't worry, it'll all be over in the morning. You'll be … _back to normal_."

With that, Sarah turned and headed for the dining room, shaking her head at what she had just said and to whom. She was never going to admit to anybody, least of all to Cameron, that she actually agreed on what the cyborg had come up with.  
><em>I know you make him feel better and I can see he makes you feel better. <em>  
><em>I am loosing it…<em>

"Oh, and Cameron—" Sarah called from the threshold, just as Cameron was about to leave the house, making her stop at the front door and turn.

"Yes?" she inquired, facing the woman attentively.

"I just hope he doesn't make you … unhappy … one day" Sarah said tonelessly, leaning against the doorframe again and suddenly looking rather weary.

"Why would John make me unhappy? He makes me feel better."

Cameron's head-tilt made Sarah roll her eyes and sigh.  
><em>And my son finds that annoying habit of hers cute…<em>

She looked intensely at the machine standing on the opposite side of the room.  
>"Because humans also lie. And things change. People change. Your relationship is still young, you wouldn't understand that now, but things change over time. Not always, but sometimes.<br>I just—"

Sarah broke off and took a deep breath, feeling a lump rising in her throat.  
>"I just hope you won't be unhappy someday and—"<p>

A muffled sob escaped Sarah's lips as she fought not to loose her composure.  
>"—hurt my son."<p>

Cameron opened her mouth in shock. It shook her that Sarah obviously still believed her to be a threat to John. She would never hurt him, not even if he lied to her.

_You lied to me…_

She remembered how easily Alison's neck had snapped. She remembered the sudden unaccounted for sensation of rage taking hold of her system, causing her fingers to close around the soft flesh.

_You lied to me…_

She remembered closing her fingers around a blonde girl's neck. She remembered John busying her out of the girl's parents' house, leaving the blonde gasping for breath on the floor. She still could not account for the loss of memory for that day, nor for how she had obtained her favourite necklace.  
><em>I have never been to Echo Park…<em>

"No."

Cameron shook her head. That was all in the past. She was fixed now and she was able to override her programming. She would never hurt her John.  
>She remembered feeling distressed the day she had killed the pigeon in the chimney.<p>

_The bird experienced an involuntary movement of my fingers…_

She remembered John repairing the damage to her arm, the concern in his eyes, his understanding as she had shown him the spare parts she had secretly kept hidden away.  
>She remembered him rushing over to her as she lay in the snow. She remembered his words.<p>

_I love you, Cameron, and you love me…_

"No. I will never hurt my John. I swear."

Cameron defiantly folded her arms and stood to her fullest height, staring a trembling Sarah in the eyes before turning and opening the front door. Keeping hold of the doorknob, she paused and turned around once more.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?" came the woman's tired reply.

"Remember the day I went bad?"

Immediately attentive again, Sarah took a step towards the cyborg and folded her arms in front of her chest, nodding slowly.  
>"Yes. I remember that."<p>

"Remember I told you not to let him bring me back if I go bad again?"

"Uh-huh."

"If I ever go bad again, John knows what to do."

After having stared at each other for quite a while, woman and cyborg both nodded, some invisible form of understanding apparently having passed between them.

"Fine" Sarah said. "Go and do your present thing. I'll put up the lights and then I'm off to bed."

Just as she was about to leave for the dining room while Cameron remained watching her, a shout from outside made them turn.

"These are the right ones" Derek announced, climbing the stairs to the porch and brandishing a box of electric lights. "I already told you yours are duff."

Sarah immediately stomped over to the door and squared up to him, scowling.  
>"You kindly informed me that I had got some with the wrong plug" she hissed. "So? What's the big deal? I'm capable of changing a plug, Derek."<p>

Derek entered the house and placed the box on the sideboard.  
>"So you say. But if you'd have read the small print you'd have noticed that they're also the wrong voltage. You got done with some European crap. D'you wanna fry that tree?"<p>

Deciding not to correct Derek on some of the fundamental properties of electricity, Cameron merely studied the two humans' interaction with interest, her head turning from side to side as if she were watching a tennis match.

"Fine" Sarah bellowed, throwing hers arms up in the air.  
>"You put your lights on, then, wise guy. I'm off to bed. Woe betide anyone, should I hear the slightest sound."<p>

With that, Sarah left them standing there and headed for the stairs. Cameron listened until the sounds of Sarah's boots clomping along the upstairs landing died away as she entered the bathroom.  
>Derek ran his hand over the back of his neck and sighed. Ignoring Cameron he picked up his box of lights and made his way across the hall to the dining room, muttering under his breath.<br>_Women. Should have kept me mouth shut…_

Listening to Derek quietly ranting on about Krauts and knotted up cables in the next room, Cameron stepped out onto the porch and descended the steps, heading for the shed.

…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Everything had still been in its place just as they had left it last time. Evidently neither Derek nor Sarah had found her tools and spare parts. John had decided it was best to bury the box with the endoskeleton parts under the floorboards of the shed. They had worked for hours one night, loosening two floorboards in a corner so they could be replaced inconspicuously, and hollowing out the ground beneath deep enough to be able to screw a wooden crate to the beams, suspending it from them so it didn't touch the earth and get damp. They had then laid the box inside and fitted the floorboards back into place, finally shoving and old chest over them into which Cameron put her tools and any other things she intended to keep away from prying eyes.

She was glad their secret hiding place had not been revealed. It would only have caused another quarrel amongst the family and she did not want John to become aggravated because of her again. It had been bad enough last time when Sarah had found out.

It hadn't taken her long to find what she was looking for. Even inside the old chest there was a place for everything and everything in its place. Cameron knew the exact whereabouts of each item inside the chest. She always committed the location of everything to memory and hated it if anyone interfered and moved things from their designated spots.

She rose from the chest clutching the two objects of her choice and a pair of pliers. Placing everything on the workbench she set to work.

After a few minutes Cameron laid the pliers down and smiled. Admiring her handiwork, she wrapped it in cloth and placed it in an empty tin container she had found in one of the workbench's drawers. She then wrapped the tin up with one of the spare pieces of wrapping paper which lay scattered on the table.  
><em>Sarah must have wrapped up her presents in here as well…<em>

The crunching of footsteps in the snow told her that someone was approaching the shed along the garden path. Her system's analysis of the footfalls' pattern told her that Derek Reese was on his way. Immediately putting on her emotionless machine face, Cameron slipped the wrapped up tin under the workbench, placing it on top of an aluminium box which resembled a pilot's case.

The door opened with an ear-splitting squeal, causing Cameron's hand to twitch.  
><em>If he wakes up my John—…<em>

"Bloody thing. I mustn't forget to oil—"

Derek froze as he noticed Cameron sitting at the workbench. His eyes drifted from the scraps of wrapping paper on the tabletop down to the case below and up again. Cameron followed his gaze and tilted her head.

"What are you doing? You've been out here for hours" he asked shiftily, as he sidled over and stood in front of the workbench facing her, a forced smile plastered on his face which looked quite painful.

Cameron regarded him blankly, catching herself in the nick of time from rolling her eyes at the typically human temporal exaggeration.  
>"Making something. For John.<p>

"Ah. Yeah, I see. Well, that's nice" Derek offered her a rather ferocious looking grin through gritted teeth. "I suppose you'll be finished now and you'll be going back inside then. Check on John and so on, eh?"

Cameron got the hint. Without a word she got to her feet, picked up the last pieces of wrapping paper off the table and strode towards the door.

"Hey! Where are you off to with that?" Derek exclaimed, rushing round the workbench after her.

Cameron stopped in her tracks and turned. "I will be needing wrapping paper in the morning. Since Sarah has already wrapped her presents I will use the remains she has left."

"But I … err, oh never mind. Great idea, yeah, why don't you?"

With a slightly deranged looking smile, Derek gripped the back of the chair so hard, his knuckles turned white. Cameron tilted her head, turned and stalked out the door, slowly closing it so it wouldn't squeak.

_I should have got her one of those neck braces to keep her head upright_, Derek thought, shaking his head and leaning on the workbench with a sigh.  
>"Great! She's nicked the last of the paper. How am I supposed to wrap up her present now? Jeez, you can't leave anything lying around with metal in the house."<p>

Muttering once more about Christmas being a humbug and machines in general, he went over to a broken cupboard without any doors which stood in a corner, and took out a pile of old newspapers.

"Oh well, those scraps would have been too small anyway" Derek concluded, searching through the papers and opening a fairly large one. Laying it flat on the tabletop, he noticed the pair of pliers lying there which Cameron had obviously forgotten.  
>"Hello. Wonder where these came from. They're not mine, that's for sure."<br>He held them up to the light. "Cor! And they're not bad, either" he exclaimed, admiring the sturdy workmanship.  
><em>It's nice to know I get left with the cheap crap for me car…<em>

Placing the pliers back down Derek reached under the workbench and pulled out the aluminium case. A small rectangular box wrapped in Christmassy wrapping paper fell onto his left foot. Frowning, Derek picked it up.

"That's funny. I don't remember putting that there" Derek muttered to himself, scratching the stubble on his chin.  
>"Wait a minute. It must be hers. She said she was making something for John. I wonder…"<p>

He put the box on the table with the intention of taking it back inside with him as soon as he had finished wrapping up his present.  
>Sighing, he bent down and picked up the case, placing it in the middle of the spread out newspaper.<br>_Damn! It's too big…_

Cursing, he gazed around the shed looking for something else he could wrap the case in instead of the too small newspaper. An old chest was standing in a corner and it looked about the right size to be able to contain his case.  
>Derek went over to the chest and bent down to have a closer look at it. Just as he was about to open it, he stopped in mid reach and scowled.<br>_Nah. Sarah's only gonna shout at me for using that filthy old thing…_

Shaking his head at the idea of scrubbing the grime off the chest for half an hour, Derek decided he'd have to stick to the newspapers, even if it meant taping a few together.

…

Having closed the front door silently so as not to wake Sarah or John, Cameron padded up the dark staircase as light-footedly as her boots would allow, taking care not to put her entire weight onto the third step from the top. It tended to creak.  
>She strode along the landing and paused outside the door to John's room listening for any unusual sounds coming from within. Quiet snores told her that John must be fast asleep.<br>_I should be with him…_

Bathed in moonlight shining through the windows at the end of the corridor, Cameron extended her hand and took hold of the doorknob, turning it slowly and quietly. She had intended to retire to her own room with the wrapping paper and then take a shower before she would sit on her bed monitoring the usual sounds of sleeping humans and the familiar creaks and groans of temperature changes coming from within the house.

She did not know why she entered John's room. Standing outside and imagining him peacefully lying in his bed had generated a profound feeling of happiness inside her. She knew he was alright, she had heard him snoring and breathing but she felt she had to see him and be close to him, all the same. Just to be sure. And now, finding him lying sprawled on his back, his blanket having partly slipped off onto the floor and seeing his chest rhythmically rising and falling, the warm feeling inside her was so pronounced, it brought a smile to her face.  
><em>Now I know why I feel the same…<em>

She placed the wrapping paper on his desk and crept over to his bed.  
>As if it had been something she had always done, Cameron picked up the blanket off the floor and put it back over John, tucking it down under his shoulders so it couldn't slip off again. She then walked round to the other side of the bed and lightly sat down on the mattress, gazing fondly at John's mouth hanging open. She grinned at the occasional loud rasping snore escaping his lungs.<br>_Human snoring is due to another design flaw…_

After having sat motionless for over half an hour merely watching him sleep, Cameron bent down, undid her shoelaces and slipped off her boots, placing them quietly at the foot of the bed side by side. Hesitantly, she lifted her feet off the ground and rested her legs on the mattress, while all the time looking at John to make sure she didn't wake him.  
>Pleased that the bed did not squeak in protest at the sudden and rather ample additional weight, Cameron gingerly lowered her body until she was lying on her back next to him.<p>

Ever since he'd been a child, John had always slept on the right side of his bed, mostly on the edge of the mattress. Sarah had long ago given up on trying to detain him from his habit for fear he might fall out of bed. He never had, though, and even moving his bed so that the right side of it butted up against a wall had only resulted in John catching a cold from sleeping pressed up against the freezing wall all night.  
>Lucky for Cameron, he still slept that way, which granted her a little more room on the kid-sized bed.<p>

John grunted contently in his sleep, turning over to lie on his right side with his back to her, while he clutched his pillow in his arms.  
>Satisfied that she hadn't woken him, Cameron closed her eyes with the intention of allowing herself to enter hibernation mode, thus being able to temporarily shut down all secondary systems and keep only her monitoring receptors in high alert mode.<br>_Lying next to him … feels normal. Just like something I should do…_

A powerful sensation jolting her system made Cameron open her eyes. Before she entered hibernation, there was one last thing she needed to do. Sitting up and bending over John, she planted a tiny kiss on his temple, her hair dangling over his face.  
>"I love you too, John" she whispered before she lay back down and closed her eyes, feeling positively relaxed.<p>

John stirred slightly and mumbled something incomprehensible.

…

"That'll have to do."  
>Derek pushed aside the aluminium case now wrapped in newspaper and taped down haphazardly with Sellotape. He walked over to the far wall of the shed and reached behind some tins of paint standing on a shelf. Retrieving John's present which he had wrapped up earlier with some of the wrapping paper he had found on the kitchen sideboard, and which he had hurriedly hidden up on the shelf as he'd heard Sarah approaching the shed, he placed it on top of the case together with what he deemed was the machine's present for his nephew.<p>

Derek strode over to the door, opened it wide and winced at the screech of metal on metal.  
><em>Those damn hinges…<em>  
>Returning to the workbench, he bent down and opened one of the tool cupboards below. After rummaging around inside for a while, he emerged with a small plastic bottle of household oil in his hand and made his way over to the door.<br>_I wish I had some penetrating oil…_

Two or three squirts on each hinge did the trick, the shed door now moved smoothly and silently. Opening and closing it a few times to let the oil work its way into the hinges, Derek nodded to himself in acknowledgement and left the door wide open.  
>He went back to the workbench, picked up his stack of presents and turned to head for the door. Cursing because it had shut of its own accord due to the apparently liberal amount of oil it had received, Derek dropped his presents back on the table and dragged the chair over to the door. He opened it again and wedged the chair up against it so it wouldn't fall shut.<p>

Picking up his presents once more, he crossed the room and was just about to step over the threshold when his shins collided with the chair.  
>After a roar of pain and having kicked the chair out of the shed and halfway across the snow covered lawn, a swearing Derek hobbled up the garden path towards the house, precariously balancing his presents.<p>

It was dead quiet inside as Derek switched on the hall lights and closed the door behind him with his foot. He was surprised not to find the machine sitting on the living room sofa watching TV or balefully staring out of a window. The lights had been off everywhere, even in her room.

"Funny" Derek said to himself as he entered the dining room and placed his presents under the tree together with Sarah's.  
>"I wouldn't put it past her that she goes to kip now, as well."<p>

Shaking his head at the thought of a sleeping terminator in flowery pyjamas and reassuring himself that he had probably merely missed her pale face at one of the upstairs windows due to the bright moonlight flooding the garden, Derek returned to the front door.  
>After having locked it twice and setting the burglar alarm, he retired to the spare room at the back of the house and flopped down onto the old couch Sarah had assigned to him, kicking off his boots. Remembering he still had to go somewhere, he got to his feet again sighing and headed for his small en suite bathroom whilst reminding himself not to forget to carry his gift for Sarah into the house tomorrow, preferably when she would be occupied with preparing the turkey which, knowing her, would most likely be first thing in the morning.<p>

Scowling at the thought of having to get up at the crack of dawn, he entered his small bathroom and closed the door behind him.  
><em>Can't have a lie-in anyway with Sarah clomping about the place. When she's up, everybody's up…<em>

Having completed his brief late night toilet practices, which mainly consisted of cleaning his teeth for a considerable amount of time, Derek finally lay down on his couch and pulled a thin woollen blanket over him. Muttering about Christmas and interfering machines he drifted off into his usual restless sleep, his dreams haunted by Cromartie dressed as Santa Claus.

…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

_Her skin feels so soft…_

John tightened his embrace on Cameron and buried his head in her fragrant, silky hair. It felt so great just lying there holding onto her, he didn't want to open his eyes and wake up.  
><em>Not yet. Just a few more minutes…<em>

Sunlight was filtering in through the curtains and bathed the room in a hazy, fairy-like light, not unlike the kind used in those gleaming, spanking shampoo or soapsuds commercials.  
>John decided it was time to open one eye. After all, his mother was due to burst into his room any minute and she would not be pleased about seeing him and his protector like this.<br>_What? I'm with Cameron?…_  
>His left eye was not so reluctant to yield to his command as his tightly closed right one was. Slowly letting it get accustomed to the light, he gradually opened it and glanced down at the pillow he was currently cuddling.<br>_Aw, it was only a dream…_

Sighing, John let go of his pillow and let it fall to the floor. He closed his open eye again and rolled over onto his back, trying hard to cling to the last fading remnant of his beautiful dream.  
><em>I can still smell her…<em>

Fidgeting, he rolled over onto his left side and his forehead collided with something hard. "Ow!"  
>John's eyes now flew open with a start, as he wondered what he had hit his forehead on.<br>_Did I leave my laptop—?…_

His jaw dropped in utter astonishment as he sat up and took in the graceful form of the cyborg girl he had just so vividly dreamt about, lying right next to him.  
>Cameron was lying perfectly still on her back looking completely relaxed, her eyes were closed and her usual blank expression had been replaced by one of pure contentment.<p>

John slapped himself on the cheek.  
><em>Ow, that hurt. I'm not dreaming…<em>

"Cameron?" he breathed, leaning over her.

"Mmh…"  
>A sleepy sigh emitted from Cameron's artificial lungs as she slowly opened her eyes.<br>"Good morning, John" she said softly, treating him to a beaming smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, but … how … and why …?" he stammered wide-eyed and gestured at her on his bed.

Her face fell. Taking her now sad gaze off of him she started to sit up.  
>"I'm sorry, John. I shouldn't have—"<p>

The touch of his hand gently taking hold of her arm and easing her back down caused a jolt in her system, rendering her momentarily speechless.

"I didn't mean … I mean … I had this dream … about you. And now you're here. I was just startled, that's all" John blurted out.  
>"Please don't go" he added gingerly, his cheeks going a little pink.<p>

Cameron looked at him, her smile back in place.  
>"I'll never leave you, John. You know that."<p>

He lay back down next to her as she gazed at him fondly, her dark eyes full of an adoration John didn't think he'd ever seen before.  
><em>They're like pearls. Black pearls…<em>

"Err, Cameron?" John inquired breathlessly, forcing his gaze off of her eyes before he lost himself in their depths again.

"Yes?"

"Did you manage to find my mobile? You were right about it being a security risk. And it was stupid of me to chuck it away. I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry" he admitted, looking at her regretfully.  
>"I just hope you were careful, you know? Are you okay?"<p>

His caring expression and the concern she read in his voice made Cameron feel like berating herself for having lied to him. Again.  
><em>This is going to change…<em>

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"I lied to you this morning. I did not leave you to retrieve your mobile nor would I have done since you had asked me not to. I'm sorry, John. I'm sorry for lying to you."

Her face crumpled and tears started to well up in her eyes. John attributed her sudden mood swings and sometimes quite drastic displays of emotion to her still being in the need of learning to deal properly with her emotions. And John was about to do anything he could to help her.

"Cameron" he began soothingly, taking her hand into his and caressing her palm with his thumb.  
>"That's not the end of the world. I'm not angry with you" he tried to reassure her before adding conversationally "So where did you go, then?"<p>

She stared at him in shock with wide, tearful eyes.  
>"But John, I can't tell you that. I shouldn't lie to you. I don't want to. Please, you have to understand. That isn't me. I don't want to lie to you. I—" she broke off and started to sob.<p>

_I love you John and you love me…_

Ridding himself of the equally terrible and wonderful memory her pleading triggered, John simply nodded and put his arm around her, holding a trembling Cameron tightly against his side, her head resting upon his shoulder. He took in the wonderful smell of her silk-like hair and placed his free hand over her clenched left fist, squeezing it gently until it relaxed.

He knew he had to choose his words very carefully so as not to upset her even more. She was vulnerable in so many ways, a fact he only just realized now.

"It's okay, Cameron. It's okay. I'm here" he whispered, hoping she would remember.

She gradually stopped shaking and turned her face towards him revealing a very wet puppy-dog look. He tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear and smiled.

"There's a difference between lying and deceiving" John explained. "I lied to you myself yesterday when we were in the shoe shop. I didn't want to, but I had to. It's what we call a _white lie_. It's when we lie to someone we care about, either to be able to surprise them or not to hurt their feelings with some trivial matter."

After one last sniff, Cameron tilted her head in confusion, albeit with difficulty, owing to the fact that she was currently snuggled up against him.  
>"We didn't purchase anything in that store, John. You could not have intended to surprise me. And there was nothing you did that would have hurt my feelings. I was merely confused about why we did not take the boots I found for Sarah."<p>

Grinning broadly at the sensation of her tilted head pressing against his chest and seeing her knotted up eyebrows, John craned his neck and placed a fleeting peck on the top of Cameron's head, right on the parting of her hair.  
>"So you didn't notice, then. That's good."<p>

"Notice what, John?" Cameron asked curiously, wiping her damp cheeks with the sleeve of her tracksuit. Her eyes wandered up towards the spot he had just kissed, as if she were able to see through her head.

"I can't tell you that. I'd love to, but I just can't" he said deploringly. "Not yet, anyway. It would spoil everything. I swear I'll explain later on."

The pout of her lips and the slightly indignant upwards jerk of her head made John chuckle.

"See, that's what I meant by a _white lie_. There's no need for you to get all upset about not being able to tell me things. You don't have to. I trust you, Cameron. You know that."

She knew he meant it. She could see it in his eyes. His piercing gaze held her own as Cameron was reassured without the shadow of a doubt that her John would never deliberately lie to her. He would never deceive her or break her trust. And neither would she.  
>She also realized that her not being able to tell him certain things was born out of a deep desire not to hurt him. And for fear of losing him.<p>

Thinking about what John had just told her about white lies, Cameron deduced that she had simply over-reacted in her confusion about how to explain to him where she had gone last night. A relieved smile found its way onto her face.  
><em>I can tell him later. That won't spoil the surprise…<em>

"John?"

"Yep?"

"Merry Christmas."

John shifted himself to be able to see the display of his digital alarm clock. It had to be an electronic one for him; he just couldn't stand the ticking of a conventional clock.  
><em>Nearly nine thirty. Christ, and Mom's not been yet. Wonder what's happened…<em>

"Merry Christmas, Cameron" he said, as he removed his arm from under her and threw back the blanket which was still partly covering his legs and belly. Sitting up and perching on the edge of the bed, John stretched himself and yawned.

Surprised at the sudden feeling of loss and replaying the happiness his arms wrapped around her had generated, Cameron had to deliberately override the notion to take hold of John's  
>T-shirt and pull him back down to hold him tight so he could not leave her. Ever.<p>

"Where are you going?" she asked uneasily as he got to his feet and made his way across the room.

"Err…, I need to go to the bathroom" he replied bashfully, hastily reaching for the doorknob.  
>"See you in a bit."<p>

He opened the door a little way and slipped through the gap, closing it again behind him. Dashing along the landing towards the bathroom, John couldn't help thinking about how nobody ever seems to have to go to the loo in movies.

He needed to clean his teeth and decided to take that shower he had postponed last night.  
><em>Can't have Christmas dinner looking like I've just crawled out of bed…<em>  
>Come to think of it, John would really much rather have stayed in bed with Cameron but he just felt uncomfortably filthy.<br>_I wonder if terminators get bad breath in the mornings…_

Remembering the sweet smell he had just woken up to, he supposed they didn't, even though he recalled that his mother had once mentioned Kyle's revelations to her about the T-800s having bad breath and being able to sweat.  
>He closed the bathroom door behind him, locked it and turned on the shower to let it run while he cleaned his teeth, hoping the water would be warm enough by the time he had finished.<br>_Damn central heating units. It takes ages to warm up all the way from the basement…_

Awkwardly pulling off his T-shirt and shorts, John stepped into the shower and immediately jumped back with a shriek. The water was scolding hot. Cursing, he fiddled with the taps until it was bearable.  
>Letting the water wash away yesterday's grime and hateful memories, John caught himself wondering if Cameron could actually sweat.<br>_I could think of a good way to find out—…_

_SPLASH_

Slapping himself in the face with his soapy sponge, John forced his straying thoughts back on to the movies in which couples always seem to be able to make out right after waking up in the mornings with a full bladder and without cleaning their teeth.  
><em>Hmm, one good thing about Cameron being a—…<em>

_SPLAT_

He wiped the soap from the sponge out of his eyes and hastily rinsed himself, then turned the water off and stepped out of the shower fumbling blindly for his bath towel. After having found it and thoroughly dried himself, he pulled on a new pair of shorts from the pile on the rack.  
><em>Mom be blessed…<em>

Feeling strangely cleansed, John was just about to chance a spray of deodorant when there was a knock on the door.

"I'll be out in a minute, Mom" he cried towards the door.

"John, you have forgotten to take some fresh clothes with you again" Cameron's voice sounded from outside.

With lightning speed John wrapped his damp towel around himself and went over to the door. He unlocked it, opened it a little way and stuck his head out through the gap.  
>She was standing there looking lovelier than ever, her hair a little dishevelled, and still wearing that adorable pale blue tracksuit. A pile of clothing was draped over her outstretched arm. John reached out through the gap while keeping his body behind the door and took the pile off her, slowly closing the door as he did so.<p>

"Thanks, Cameron. Yeah, I … err … must have forgotten. I'll just hop into them, then."

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Cameron gently pushed the door open causing John to stumble backwards. He gaped at her open mouthed as she entered the bathroom and paused at his side.

"They're not all for you, John" she said sweetly, taking the clothes she had just had neatly draped over her arm away from him. Frowning at the way he had been holding them all scrunched up into a ball, she smoothed them out again and sighed, handing him a pair of expensive looking dark blue jeans he never knew he'd had and a freshly ironed khaki shirt with a button down collar.

Taking them absent-mindedly, John simply stared at the remaining items Cameron was holding: a long dark blue satin dress and underneath it something that disconcertingly resembled black lace underwear.

"W…what? Why…? Whatchadooin?" John stammered incomprehensibly, pointing at the garments she was holding.

Cameron rolled her eyes and turned to close the door, hanging her dress on one of the hooks behind it.  
>"I want us to look nice for Christmas dinner" she declared, walking past him and laying those black lacy things John's eyes were glued to on the stool.<p>

"And my hair is a terrible mess" she added, looking at her reflection in the mirror and shaking her head. She unzipped her tracksuit jacket and threw it into the corner where it landed dead centre on top of the washing basket.  
>Noticing John's rather goofy expression and his suddenly crimson face as his eyes focussed on her pink brassiere, she tilted her head at him.<p>

"Are you feeling okay, John?" she asked with an impish smile.  
>"Perhaps you should get dressed in your room. It is rather warm in here and it will get even hotter when I shower."<p>

"G…gah" John burbled and closed his mouth with a clomp before he nodded and slowly retreated backwards towards the door and to safety.

…

"Oh no, look at the time!"

An utterly shocked Sarah Connor practically leapt out of bed after she had gone through her usual wake up routine of reluctantly opening her eyes, checking if the gun on her bedside table was still in its place, scratching herself and glancing perfunctorily at the clock which she knew would be reading 7:15 AM. She never bothered to set the alarm, since she always woke up at the same time.

For Sarah, staying in bed until quarter to ten was unheard of. She would usually have had breakfast ready by 7:45 and already have hollered at her son at least twice to get up.  
>Shaking her head in disbelief and checking the time on her mobile just to be on the safe side, she stood up and opened the window, taking a deep breath of the winter morning's crisp fresh air sweeping into the room.<p>

Christmas Day had turned out to be beautiful. The sun was shining brightly and it must have been snowing again profusely in the night. The SUV was buried under a thick white blanket and the evergreens at the back of the garden resembled the ones seen in pictures of the Alps, their braches heavily layered with tufts of snow. The scenery made Sarah momentarily forget about how late it was.

_Ah, that's better. What a lovely morning. I must tell John how nice those trees look…_

At the thought of her son, Sarah remembered that she had wanted to conjure up a special Christmas breakfast for John consisting of fried bread, bacon, egg, sausages and beans. She had seen this recipe in the _La British Cuisine_ section of a magazine she had read some time ago. It had even contained a list of some restaurants which served decent food.

_I would have liked to try that _El Fish & Chippo_ place…_

Cursing over the grocery store not having had any mushrooms yesterday, Sarah pulled on her jeans and slipped into one of her usual olive-coloured long shirts. She folded back the bedclothes to let them air and went over to the dresser in search of the pair of fluffy pink slippers she had found at the mall.  
><em>Pity they had no black ones left. Never mind, at least they're cosy…<em>

Her feet now warm, but looking ludicrous, Sarah made her way to the door and opened it. Sighing about long lie-ins, she headed for the bathroom, only to find the door locked.

"Hurry up, John, I need to get in there!" she roared, banging on the door.

"Mom?" John inquired curiously from behind her, poking his head out of his room and frowning as he noticed her feet.

"John?" Sarah turned at looked at him aghast.  
>"I thought you were …who's in the bathroom, then?"<p>

Before John could answer, they both heard the bathroom door unlock and Cameron stepped out onto the landing, a huge white bath towel wrapped round her and a hand towel over her hair like a turban.

"Good morning Sarah. Merry Christmas" Cameron said brightly as she passed them carrying her dress and tracksuit, before she entered her room and quietly closed the door behind her.

Sarah merely gaped at her and then at the closed door to her room. John let out a little chuckle at his mother's bewilderment which snapped Sarah out of her reverie.

"Since when does she take a shower?" she asked, still not being able to believe what she had just witnessed.

"I dunno, Mom" John said thoughtfully.  
>"I think she's always showered, but probably at night so none of us noticed."<p>

Sarah shook her head and sighed. Cyborgs taking showers was something she was so not ready for first thing in the morning.

"Oh well, at least she's clean" Sarah admitted feebly.  
>Turning to her son, she glared at him and looked him up and down, eying the crinkles and holes in his T-shirt disapprovingly.<br>"Talking of being clean …" she said, narrowing her eyes at John.

"Oh no. I was in there first. I even washed behind my ears" John protested at his mother's veiled accusation.  
>"Look, my hair's still damp. I didn't get round to drying it because Cameron came in and—"<p>

He trailed off turning crimson. Sarah's eyes narrowed even more as she smirked knowingly at her son.

"Oh, she did, did she? It's good to see you two are _back to normal_ and not upset over each other anymore" she affirmed, glad that she had obviously trodden on a nerve, judging by John's colour and him currently squirming on the spot.

"Upset?" John asked, trying hard to force the colour away from his cheeks. Blushing in front of Cameron was one thing. Blushing in front of his mother was something entirely different. It made him prematurely guilty of anything she could devise to accuse him of.  
>"No one was upset" he assured her, now wondering what on earth had made her think that in the first place.<p>

Sarah quirked an eyebrow at him.  
>"Oh, really? Well, your cyborg apparently thought differently last night."<p>

"Last night? What do you mean, Mom?"

"She seemed a little uptight about having to leave you. And by the way, she didn't go and get your phone. I did" Sarah declared, proudly watching her son's baffled expression giving way to one of understanding.

"You talked to her? What did she say?" John asked eagerly, hoping his mother would disclose what Cameron had been up to.

"Let's just say, we had a little chat" Sarah responded with a grin. She left it at that, opened the bathroom door and stepped inside, leaving John to fill in the blanks.

_Mom having a chat with Cameron? I must still be asleep…_

Reassured that he was actually awake by his cheek hurting after he had slapped it once more, John shook his head at the weirdness of it all and went back to his room. Before he could close the door behind him, he heard his mother's voice.

"John! Come here this instant!"

_Oh no. What now?…_  
>"Coming, Mom" he called, reluctantly heading back to the bathroom.<p>

Sarah's outstretched arm protruding into the landing from the gap between door and frame greeted him.  
>"These. Aren't. Mine" she said icily, dangling a pair of black underpants and a matching bra pincer-like between her thumb and index finger.<p>

John felt like vanishing on the spot as the pincers opened, the black lacy things gracefully fluttered to the floor and the bathroom door was slammed shut.

…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

His trousers were stiff and too tight and he felt like a complete twerp in his uncomfortable shirt with its stupid button-down collar. He was also quite embarrassed. This was something he had never done before, but there was no point in turning back now. Not when he had come this far.  
>The highly polished surface of the door reflected his outline as he paused and hesitantly raised his hand.<br>_This is it. I've got to go through with it now…_

Sighing apprehensively, John knocked. He cringed at the sound of footsteps approaching the door from the other side. Then the knob was turned. John closed his eyes.  
><em>Oh God…<em>

"Is there anything wrong, John?" Cameron asked, regarding him with astonishment as he stood outside her room with his eyes pressed firmly shut and her underwear in his outstretched hand.

"You … um … forgot these" he blurted out and handed Cameron's underwear to the doorframe, his eyes still closed.

She reached out and plucked them from his hand which was now groping along the wall.  
>"Thank you John. I must have dropped them in my haste to vacate the bathroom for Sarah. If you change we can go downstairs for breakfast."<p>

"Eh?"  
>Hesitantly, John opened his eyes only to behold Cameron standing in front of him wearing her pale blue tracksuit and not, as he had been fearing, nothing whatsoever.<p>

He noticed the way she was looking him up and down as if contemplating if her choice of clothing for him had been appropriate.  
>"What do you mean, change? I thought I was going to wear this for dinner?" he exclaimed, wondering why on earth she had given him these horrid new trousers and an itchy shirt if he was not supposed to wear them.<br>"And why aren't you wearing that dress?"

Cameron rolled her eyes and sighed.  
>"The dress is for dinner, John. I don't want to get it dirty by wearing it all day" she explained. "I brought it to the bathroom to merely try it on. I thought that would be obvious."<p>

John swallowed his reply of _I thought clothing is to wear and not to look at_ and settled for merely shaking his head and rolling his eyes, too.

Cameron's eyes flashed.  
>"And I don't want you to get your best clothes dirty, either. Go and change into something else" she commanded before folding her arms and adding in a dangerous tone<br>"You're not wearing that T-shirt underneath your shirt. It's full of holes."

"But the shirt's itchy—"  
>The door closed in front of him, cutting his protest short and leaving him to trudge back to his room muttering about mother-like cyborgs, women in general and him having no life of his own.<p>

Cameron's decision hadn't been too bad, he had to admit, after he had slipped on his comfortable, worn out jeans and ripped off that dreadful shirt, which had made him itch all over.  
><em>I'm sure they make them from sailcloth…<em>

Pleased that he was back to what he called normal, John pulled on one of his ample supply of long shirts over the T-shirt his mother and Cameron had so adamantly disapproved of. Feeling peckish, he wondered what would be for breakfast.  
><em>Let me think … pancakes?…<em>

A knock on his door made him turn around, halfway expecting his mother to enter pushing a trolley laden with goodies and treating him to breakfast in bed, something he had always wanted to have ever since he was a child.

"Yeah?" John called in anticipation, his mouth starting to water.

The door opened and Cameron entered without a trolley and without anything edible whatsoever. She tilted her head at his initial look of disappointment, immediately thinking she had done something wrong.

"I'm sorry I made you change, John. Of course you can wear the nicer things if you'd rather" she said timidly, walking up to him and taking his hand into hers.

"That's okay, Cameron. You were right, I wouldn't want to get pancake syrup all over my new shirt" John said with a chuckle.

Feeling relieved as he squeezed her hand and smiled at her, she batted her eyelids and lowered her gaze to the floor.

Following her gaze, he stared at her feet sticking out from under her tracksuit trouser legs, trying hard to stifle a grin and conceal his amazement at the pink girlie socks she was wearing. This was something so totally 'un-Cameron-ish' but yet again so typical of her, it made him want to laugh out loud and hug her.

"I left my boots next to your bed" she informed him after having glanced up and down between him and her socks.

"I like your socks" John told her as she sat down on his bed to put her boots on.  
>Thinking of the pink brassiere he had been fortunate enough to behold earlier on, he added<br>"I never knew you liked pink."

"Human girls are supposed to like pink."

Suddenly looking sad and disheartened, Cameron slipped her boots on and fastened the buckles. Before she could sit up she felt John's arm snake round her, giving her shoulders a squeeze.

"Yeah. That's what they say" John confirmed, gently raising her body into an upright position and turning her towards him.

The way she always let him guide her fascinated him. He knew he would not be able to budge her one inch if she decided she didn't want to comply. She was stronger and faster and much more agile than any human, yet here she was, allowing him to take hold of her and ease her towards him.

"But I don't really care if human girls like pink" he said softly, placing his index finger on the tip of her nose and laughing at her going cross-eyed trying to look at it.  
>"I just want to know if my Cameron likes pink."<p>

She reached out for his hand and laced her fingers through his, his words obliterating years of loneliness and despair in a matter of seconds. For the first time in her existence, she felt proud of herself. Proud of what she was, of what she was capable of.  
>She was capable of liking pink. She could cook pancakes. She could protect her John. And she could love him. And that was all that mattered in the world to her.<p>

Sometimes it still got to her. She remembered how the loneliness had taken hold of her after her arrival in 1999, causing her system to freeze up, as she had realized that she was Skynet's supreme creation, a one of a kind model, destined to be alone forever in an uncharted future.  
>But John had changed that. He had accepted her for whom she was, he liked her because she was Cameron. His Cameron.<p>

With a confused blink, she decided to rid herself of the strange notion to push John back down on his bed and snuggle up next to him, just to remain lying side by side with him forever.  
><em>He might not find that appropriate…<em>

Pulling John up with her, Cameron abruptly rose to her feet and guided him over to his desk.

"Do you need anything from my desk?" he asked her as they halted behind his swivel chair, curious as to why she had walked them over there.

Cameron gave the chair a light shove and it spun around revealing John's rucksack.  
>"We still need to wrap up the presents for Sarah and Derek" she informed him, reaching for the bulging backpack and indicating towards the scraps of wrapping paper on the desk.<br>"I brought some wrapping paper."

John froze. He lunged at his rucksack, snatching it away from her before she could take hold of it.

"You haven't opened it, have you?" he cried in alarm, fiddling with its clasps.

Looking a little put out, Cameron watched him with a huff, as he stood between her and the chair, purposely blocking her view of his rucksack as he opened the flap, unzipped it and glanced furtively inside. Everything was still in its place, just how he had crammed it in yesterday. A sigh of relief escaped him. He pulled out Derek's oil and Sarah's cookbook and laid both on the desk, immediately zipping his rucksack up again and securely fastening its flap before shoving it in the gap between his bookcase and the desk.

"There!" John breathed, relieved that he had managed to hide the professionally wrapped present for Cameron from her view.  
>"That's got it out of the way. Now we can get on with wrapping—"<p>

He trailed off as he noticed Cameron's folded arms and her dainty pout.  
><em>Aw, she's sweet when she's miffed…<em>

Grinning, John walked up to her and gave her a brief peck on the cheek which caused her mouth to open in astonishment. Deciding that another white lie may be called for, so as not to upset her even more, he put on his most innocent face and stepped back to look at her.

"I put grease on the zips because they were stiff. That's why I didn't want you touching it" he fibbed, hoping she would swallow it.  
>"You'd have got your fingers greasy and then you might have stained the wrapping paper."<p>

John gulped as Cameron eyed him suspiciously, pulling a disbelieving face and picked up a piece of paper large enough to wrap the cookbook in. She sat down at his desk and set to work neatly folding the paper over the book with a speed that made John dizzy watching her.  
>The result was marvellous, there was no Sellotape to be seen and she had somehow managed to fold the paper in a way that the finished present looked like it had a diagonal stripe going round it.<br>_Wow. It looks like a machine has wrapped it. Well, actually … oh whatever…_

Derek's spray can ended up resembling a huge toffee with the frilled ends bent back. John gawked at it in amazement.  
>"How did you manage that?" he inquired, admiring how her dainty little hands were capable of such artistry.<br>"It's beautiful."

"Tactical analysis of the objects' geometrical properties and the paper's pattern" Cameron deadpanned with her back turned while she gathered up the offcuts.

"Um … yeah, right" John uttered somewhat deflated, his vivid image of Princess Cameron occupying herself with calico needlework in a sunlit glade having been unceremoniously destroyed.

Fortunately for him, he was not able to see the small smirk of pride present on her face as she relished in his crestfallen appearance which she detected out of the corner of her eye.  
><em>Serves him right for lying to me. I wonder what's in his rucksack…<em>

Craning her neck to see if there was anything visible beneath the rucksack's flap and trying to determine the nature of its contents by analysing their shape's outline on the material, Cameron huffed as her HUD came up with no satisfactory suggestion apart from _box_.

She got to her feet abruptly and glared at John, making him jump.  
>"What are you getting me for Christmas, John? You didn't get anything at the mall nor did you have the time to make anything yesterday" she declared, pouting.<p>

_Sweet…_  
>"I can't tell you now. It wouldn't be a surprise then, would it? You'll see in a minute after breakfast" he informed her, grinning.<p>

Cameron looked pleased and eager.  
>"So you did get me something?"<p>

Grabbing his hand she pulled him towards the door. He opened it and they filed out onto the landing. A strange smell greeted them, something like a barbeque, but on the other hand it was still different somehow.

"Something's burning!" John cried in alarm and set off at a run, pulling Cameron along with him towards the stairs.

She held him back and smiled.  
>"No, John. I think Sarah is trying to surprise you by cooking breakfast. This is the smell of bacon and toast being fried, although it should have been removed from the heat nine minutes ago."<p>

Taking in the culinary smell never before present in the Connor residence, John had to admit that Cameron was right. After all, she must have been able to smell it long before he could and she surely would have been the first to alert him if anything actually had caught light.

They descended the stairs in anticipation, Cameron dying to find out what John had got her for Christmas and John anxious to see if their kitchen was still in one piece.

Crossing the hall, John chuckled as he heard loud snores coming from the spare bedroom at the far end.  
>"Just wait until he smells the food" he told Cameron, grinning knowingly as they headed for the kitchen.<p>

…

A cloud of blue smoke engulfed them as they opened the door. Billowing and undulating like a snake, it permeated the entire ground floor within seconds, until it had dissipated enough for John and Cameron to be able to rush over to the kitchen window and wrench it open.  
>A coughing and spluttering Sarah was standing at the sink, covered from head to toe in something which greatly resembled soot. She was holding a large frying pan encrusted with the smouldering remains of some dark charcoal-like objects under the tap.<p>

"Fire! Fire!"  
>They heard a door crash open against a wall. Seconds later, Derek came rushing in clutching a fire extinguisher.<p>

"What the hell—?"  
>He stopped dead taking in the scene before him: Cameron was rushing around opening all the windows, John had switched on the extractor fan which his mother always refused to use and Sarah was still at the sink holding her frying pan under the running water and coughing ever so often.<p>

"Not fire" Cameron stated, blankly observing Derek's incredulous expression. "Breakfast."

"What?"  
>Only just having noticed the open packets of bacon and sausages lying on the counter and the tins of beans standing next to the stove, Derek's gaze moved over to Sarah and whatever she'd had in the frying pan which was now burnt to a cinder.<p>

Comprehension dawning, Derek looked sternly at John and Cameron.  
>"Who the hell let her in the kitchen?" he exclaimed, shaking his head and bending down to stand his fire extinguisher on the floor next to the counter.<p>

The sound of the frying pan colliding with the wall where Derek's head had been only a split second earlier, made Cameron subconsciously step in front of John.

"If you can do better, then it's your turn today, wise guy" Sarah hissed, advancing on Derek who was cowering behind his fire extinguisher. She thrust her plastic spatula into his hand and brought her face into within an inch of his.  
>"I'm taking a shower. Breakfast had better be ready when I return, or else…" she snapped dangerously.<br>After jabbing Derek in the chest with her index finger, she turned and stomped off, leaving a trail of soot behind.

Derek gulped and looked to John for support.  
>"I've never done breakfast in me life, couldn't you…?" he began uneasily, offering John what he hoped was a 'would you do this for your dear old uncle' look.<p>

"Cameron can" John informed him, instantly deflating Derek's hopeful smile. "She's read all the recipe books on the shelf."

Cameron nodded eagerly, deciding that making breakfast for the family would be a good excuse to venture into the larder and rid it of any unhealthy foodstuffs, such as John's 300% sugar cereals.

"I don't sleep" she simply told Derek, who looked as if he had been slapped in the face.

John eyed his uncle and sighed impatiently, knowing what was going through his head.

"Or won't you eat it if Cameron cooks it?"

Derek looked from John to Cameron and then to the door, evidently contemplating what would be worse, consuming something prepared by metal or having to suffer the full extent of Sarah Connor's fury. He made up his mind in an instant.

"Would you mind making it?" he addressed a quite taken aback Cameron sheepishly.  
>"John can assist you if you get stumped somewhere."<p>

Walking over to his nephew, Derek clapped him hard on the shoulder and pushed him towards the cyborg. For the first time in his life he actually hoped John would stay close to Cameron, at least while she was cooking, just to set his mind at rest.  
><em>I don't suppose she would, but on the other hand, you never know…<em>

"I wouldn't mind preparing breakfast, Derek. And no thank you, John would only get in the way. Why don't you both watch TV until I'm finished?" she suggested, hoping Derek would get the hint.

Apparently, he had.

"Come on, you can help me clear the snow off the SUV. It doesn't do the paintwork much good."  
>He beckoned John to follow him and chuckled at his indignant spluttering on behalf of the cyborg who had just plainly succeeded in getting him out from under her feet.<p>

"That's how it starts, John. Before you know it, the sheilas are telling you what to do and planning your life for you" Derek told his nephew and nodded knowingly, as they crossed the snow-covered lawn heading for the car.  
>"Couldn't happen to me, though" he added proudly, holding his head up high.<p>

"I'm warning you…"  
>The seemingly disembodied voice coming from behind one of the closed upstairs windows was faint and muffled but it nevertheless had the speaker's desired effect on Derek.<p>

"Sarah? Where? What? Eh?" he spluttered, looking around in all directions in a frantic sort of manner.

"So I see" John muttered, grinning at his terror-stricken uncle before busying himself with brushing the snow off the roof of the car with Derek's special feather duster.

…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"That's much better."  
>A thoroughly clean Sarah appreciatively studied her reflection in the bathroom mirror before gathering up her filthy, sooty clothes off the floor and dumping them in the washing basket. She had put on near enough identical items, her wardrobe consisting mainly of long shirts and jeans, not unlike her son's.<p>

A delicious smell greeted her as she made her way across the landing.  
><em>I never knew he had it in him<em>, she thought whilst descending the stairs, her mouth beginning to water.  
>Without further ado, Sarah entered the kitchen and was quite impressed at the scene the kitchen table presented. Perfectly done eggs lay on buttered, golden toast, surrounded by succulent sausages, steaming beans and crisp bacon. Accompanying the four plates and sets of cutlery were glasses of orange juice and folded napkins.<br>_Hold on … FOUR plates!…_

Forcing her attention off the table, she glanced around sceptically, intending to ask Derek if he had made himself a double portion, for she was perfectly sure he would never have laid a place for Cameron. It was only then she noticed she was quite alone in the kitchen.  
>"Where is everybody?"<p>

Raised voices from the porch informed her that the rest of the family must be outside. Wondering what on earth could have prevented Derek from immediately gobbling up his double breakfast, Sarah strode over to the hall, only to witness the front door opening and Derek being pushed inside by a livid looking Cameron, closely followed by John who was being tugged along by her.

Sarah raised her eyebrows as the group filed into the hall.  
>"What is going on?" she asked somewhat uneasily, before noticing the puddles forming on the floor under Derek and John.<br>"And why are you two dripping water all over the place? I polished that floor not so long ago."

Looking guiltily at one another out of the corner of their eyes and both not really knowing what to answer, they merely smiled goofily at Sarah, before being spared an explanation by Cameron, who stalked up to a bewildered Sarah and addressed her, folding her arms.

"They started a snowball fight. And they knew I had breakfast ready" she declared, her eyes flashing.

Sarah had to suppress a grin at the way Cameron was glaring at Derek.

Derek gulped, taking a few steps backwards and pointing towards the door.

"I'll just, err…"

"No you won't! Get in there. It's getting cold" Cameron practically growled at him. Cringing, he trudged off into the kitchen looking quite defeated.

Sarah couldn't help giving the cyborg an appreciative nod.

"Where are you going, John?" Cameron turned to the young man who had discreetly tried to sneak away towards the stairs.

"I was just, um…" he trailed off literally wilting under her gaze, and lifted his foot back off the first stair.

"You're not going to change your clothing now. It's your own fault you're soaking wet."

Under the admiring gaze of his mother, the future saviour of mankind was dragged into the kitchen by his cyborg protector, his head bowed low.

…

"That was delicious" a thoroughly satisfied Sarah announced, placing her cutlery together and leaning back in her chair.  
>"You're hired" she told Cameron who had been watching them expectantly and rather apprehensively, daintily cutting up her own food while they ate ravenously in total silence.<p>

Cameron tilted her head.

"She means she really enjoyed it and would be grateful if you took over breakfast duty from now on" John rephrased his mother's remark for her before she could ask, grinning at her with a mouthful of food.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining."

"It was great, Cameron" he added, swallowing his last bite and wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Makes a change from burnt pancakes."

"Thank you, John" she whispered, smiling at him.

"I heard that" Sarah warned her son, while she got up to remove the plates.  
>"Rest assured you won't be getting pancakes for quite some time now."<p>

Cameron tilted her head, finishing her last piece of egg and toast.  
>"If John wishes, I can also make pancakes" she deadpanned.<p>

Sarah rolled her eyes and busied herself with clearing the table, impatiently waiting for Derek to empty his plate.

"What's up with you today? You'd usually have finished your third helping by now" she asked, thinking of how Derek normally bolted his food and making a mental note to ask Cameron sometime to try and derail John from adopting his uncle's eating habits.  
><em>I wonder if Kyle ate like a pig as well…<em>

Derek looked up from poking the last slices of bacon around on his plate.  
>"I dunno, Sarah. Guess I'm not feeling myself today" he maintained, placing his hands on his stomach.<br>"And it's not your cooking" he called over to Cameron, who was regarding their interaction rather disappointedly. "It was lovely. I could get used to that."

Cameron and John shared a glance, both stunned at the first ever compliment she had received from Derek.

Sarah smirked, picking up his plate with the leftover bacon and piling it on top of the others.  
>"I hope Monsieur wasn't overdoing it last night."<p>

Derek raised his head indignantly.  
>"Shuddup."<p>

Grinning evilly, she carried the crockery to the sink and dumped it in a heap.  
>"So. Everybody ready for their presents, then?" she called, washing her hands and drying them on the tea towel.<p>

After consecutive nods from all around, Sarah addressed John and Cameron.  
>"You two. Why don't you go upstairs and get your things? Then Derek and I can prepare everything down here."<p>

Derek jumped to his feet, his face suddenly rather pale.  
>"Oh Blimey. I forgot—"<br>He dashed into the hall and out of sight, the slamming of the front door and a few indistinct curses being the last they heard of him.

Sarah and John simultaneously shrugged their shoulders at Derek's hasty exit before John turned to Cameron and beckoned her to follow him.  
>"Fifteen minutes" they heard Sarah call from the dining room as they made their way up the stairs. "And don't forget to change!"<p>

"I dunno" John said as they reached the landing, thinking of his mother's words and grinning.  
>"It's as if we're packing and on the run again."<p>

Cameron smiled at him.  
>"We're not running anymore, John. You said that yourself."<p>

"Yeah, I guess I did."

…

"I'd have never heard the last of it" Derek muttered, as he kicked open the shed door and tramped inside, covering the floor with snow.  
>"Now where did I put it…?" he asked himself, squeezing in between two stacks of crates and shoving one of them aside. The topmost crate toppled off and crashed to the ground right onto his foot. The following roar was probably heard halfway down the street, but Derek didn't give a monkey's.<br>His not throbbing foot connected with the wooden box and sent it smashing into the wall, shaking the building in its foundations and littering the floor with the crate's contents together with a few spiders that dropped from the rafters.

With a satisfied nod, Derek moved a large cardboard box and groped behind it. Feeling the object he was searching for, he took hold of it and dragged the heavy thing out from its hiding place.  
>"Bloody spiders" he grumbled, grabbing an old cloth from a box on the shelf and starting to clean off the webs spun across his item.<br>He glanced around the shed blankly, wondering how to wrap or at least disguise the rather awkwardly shaped thing. Some empty brown paper bags from a restaurant's takeaway caught his eye.  
>"Wonder if one of those will fit over it?"<p>

The bag fitted snugly over the top part as if it had been made for it.  
>"There. Perfect. Now if I stand it behind the tree…"<p>

Pleased at how he had expertly solved the problem, a high spirited Derek carried Sarah's Christmas present puffing and panting out of the shed and across the garden into the house.  
>As his luck would have it, Sarah was nowhere to be seen as he entered the dining room and shoved his burden behind the Christmas tree.<br>Derek admired the tree fondly, proud that it was still standing, and amazed at how nice the lights he had draped round its branches looked, now they were alight. Sarah had also managed to cover up his ugly old tub with a dark green satin cloth.

Having hidden his heavy load so that is was obscured by the tree's glittering branches, Derek remained standing in front of it for a while. Memories from long ago flooded his mind. He almost saw his dad lighting the candles on their tree as he used to, or his mum preparing Christmas dinner. And his brother watching them on tenterhooks, squealing with delight.  
><em>Kyle…<em>

"It's nice, isn't it?" Sarah said, walking up behind him carrying a box of Christmas crackers and a bunch of mistletoe.

"Yeah" Derek remarked hoarsely, absent-mindedly gazing at the myriad reflections in the glass globes.

Sarah glanced at the tree with misty eyes and sighed.  
>"John's first real Christmas…"<p>

"And Cameron's" Derek added automatically.

Sarah's jaw dropped.

…

"Did you enjoy your breakfast, too?" John inquired after they had entered his room and he had swapped his damp clothes for a dry pair of worn-out jeans and an identical looking long shirt.

Cameron was facing the windows and had her eyes closed since John had asked her not to look while he changed.  
>"Yes, I did. Only it was slightly too much."<p>

"Too much? How come? We all had the same" he recalled, wondering once more what on earth happened to the food inside her and what may have happened, had it been _far_ too much.  
><em>I wonder if terminators can puke…<em>

"I do not have the same storage capacity for food as humans. Your stomach is capable of holding a much larger quantity" she informed the windows, still not opening her eyes.

Grinning, John walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.  
>"You can turn around now, I'm done" he said, admiring the silky shine of her immaculate hair, while still pondering over the nature of her internal structures.<br>"All that food, I keep wondering how your body copes with it."

Turning around and treating him to one of her purposely overdone blank expressions, she wriggled out from under his arms and stood facing him defiantly.

"Not like yours."

"Um … okay" he mumbled.

Deciding not to push the subject any further right now, and not really sure if he actually did want to know all the details, John went over to his desk and pulled his rucksack out from where he had deposited it earlier. He then pulled open a desk drawer and took out on ornate envelope which he slipped into the front compartment of his rucksack.

Cameron watched interestedly, her head tilted slightly.  
><em>That must be for me…<em>

"Come on" John called excitedly, shouldering his rucksack. "It's time to go."

Cameron picked up the presents she had wrapped before breakfast and they both set off towards the door.

"What did you get Sarah and Derek, John? I still don't see anything."

"You'll see."

"But you couldn't have—"

"Nosey little cyborg, aren't we?" he interrupted with a grin, poking her in the 'ribs' as they headed down the landing.

Cameron flinched. John remembered with glee that he had intended to find out if she really was ticklish. He poked her again, twice this time. Cameron flinched and fidgeted.

"Don't do that, John" she said, keeping her gaze focussed straight ahead.

"Do what?" he asked with mock innocence, poking her again and keeping his fingers on her sides.

"That" she said sternly, wriggling away from him.

Her obvious attempt at trying to deny the new sensations made him laugh.  
>"Why?" he inquired, his mischievous schoolboy smile on his face.<p>

"Because you might loose your footing."

"Me?" he voiced incredulously. "I'd have thought you might."

He grabbed her sides and started tickling her. She squirmed and giggled. John stopped tickling her, amazed at her genuine laughter. It made him feel fifteen again, taking him back to the day they had met.

_My dad sells tractors. What about yours?…_

_Insurance…_

_Really? What kind?…_

_The boring kind…_

He hadn't heard her laugh since then. Apart from her put-on infiltration mode laughter, that was.

She sensed his hesitation and immediately took advantage of it. Placing the presents she was carrying at her feet, she grabbed him around the middle and pinned both his arms to his side, holding him tight and tickling him.

"No! Please, don't. Stop!" he howled, wriggling helplessly in her clutches until his knees gave way and he sank to the floor gasping for breath, doubled up over his rucksack.

"I told you so."

Cameron had her scary robot face in place and was peering down at a puffing and panting John Connor. Eventually, her lips formed into a proud little smile and she picked up the presents before turning and continuing along the corridor towards the stairs.

John had meanwhile got his breath back and had risen to his feet, still a little shaken by having endured his worst ever tickling – and probably the worst tickling any human had ever endured. Slinging his rucksack over his shoulder once more, he broke into a sprint after Cameron.

"Just you wait!"

With a giggle, she started to rush down the stairs, but he managed to catch up with her halfway. Clutching her sides, he was just about to show her that humans weren't that bad at tickling either, when his foot slipped over the edge of a step and he stumbled, clinging to Cameron and nearly causing them both to fall head over heels down the stairs.

Of course Cameron could have outrun him easily, just as she had anticipated him slipping and had taken a firm hold of the banister with her free hand to prevent them from falling. She had thought it would just be more fun to let him catch her.

And it had been. It pleased her greatly to be able to laugh with her John. It was something she had never believed possible.

"Good job you've got lightning reactions" John panted, relieved that she had stopped him from spending Christmas in hospital.  
>Giving her one last poke in the ribs, he took her hand and they continued down the stairs.<p>

…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Sarah looked up from fastening a sprig of mistletoe to the top frame of the front door as she heard the clomping of boots and laughter from upstairs.  
>"Here they come" she called to Derek, who was in the living room, hastily stuffing the small rectangular box he had found in the shed into John's stocking hanging from the mantelpiece.<p>

The squeals and bonks from upstairs made Sarah quirk an eyebrow.  
><em>What on earth are they doing up there? That sounded like giggling…<em>

Trying to recall if she had ever heard Cameron laugh apart from her close to blatant attempt at Enrique's, Sarah shook her head and smiled. It was nice to hear John laughing again, even if he only seemed to do so around Cameron.  
><em>Funny<em>, she thought to herself. _Of all the girls in the world, this one, this machine is the only one who measures up_.

An uncanny feeling of déjà vu took hold of Sarah, she was sure she'd said something like this before, but she just couldn't place it.

_That's the mistletoe up…_  
>Feeling strangely at ease with herself for having come to terms with John and the machine and understanding her son's care for her, Sarah studied the hanging bunch fondly before turning expectantly towards the stairs. She wanted to see the look on her son's face when he entered the dining room and saw the decorations and the presents.<p>

Cameron and John appeared at the foot of the stairs, still laughing and seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. Sarah's eyes bulged as she saw Cameron's fingers laced through her son's and the way she was leaning her head against his shoulder, giggling.

Her eyes narrowing, Sarah wrenched off the mistletoe.  
><em>I'm not that understanding…<em>

…

"John?" Cameron asked as they headed across the hall to the dining room.  
>"Is that a Christmas tradition?"<p>

"Eh? What do you mean?" John inquired, not quite understanding what she was on about.

"Your mother is making green confetti. Is that done at Christmas?"

They stopped and John turned his head in the direction she was indicating. He saw Sarah standing at the front door breaking up something that resembled a small twig and littering the floor with leaves. He squinted, finally realizing that the unfortunate plant being literally torn to pieces was in fact mistletoe.

"Not really" he considered, shaking his head. "That's mistletoe. It's usually hung up over a door for decoration…"  
>He trailed off, a little bewildered, wondering why his mother had torn it up.<br>_Perhaps she couldn't get it to stay up…_

"Oh" Cameron said brightly. "Thank you for explaining. I know mistletoe. It is supposed to bring you good luck if you kiss under it."

"Um … well … yeah, I guess it does" he murmured, his cheeks turning pink.  
><em>Great stuff, Mom. Did you have to go and shred it?…<em>

Glaring first at Cameron, then at her son, Sarah strode past them into the dining room.  
>"Come on then, if you're coming" she snapped.<p>

"Wonder what's up with her?" John glanced mystified at Cameron who merely shrugged her shoulders in a very human fashion, making him grin.

"Perhaps the turkey isn't thawed out" she suggested.

They followed Sarah into the dining room, John shouldering his rucksack and Cameron carrying the presents.  
>The room's appearance was completely different than to how John remembered it. Last night it had just been a dining room with a table covered in empty pizza cartons and beer bottles and a lop-sided tree at the window. Today it was bright and sparkling, the table presented a fine festive table cloth with a Christmas cracker at each place-mat together with a small twig of holly. Sarah had got Derek to cut off a branch from the neighbours' holly bush.<br>And the Christmas tree really looked smashing. Derek had done a surprisingly good job of draping the electric lights round its branches. John couldn't help but stop and admire it.

"Did that all on me own" Derek announced proudly, noticing that even the cyborg had stopped to look at his tree.

"I beg your pardon?" Sarah demanded dangerously, causing his smile to falter.

"I mean the lights" he corrected himself quickly. "I put them on. Sarah did the rest."

Cameron approached the tree and bent down to arrange their presents under its lower branches. Then she suddenly stiffened and stood up so abruptly she made everyone jump.

"What?" John asked, noticing her distraught expression.

"I forgot—" she uttered wide-eyed before hurrying out of the room.

After having heard the front door slam, a puzzled Sarah and Derek both looked at John for an explanation. He merely shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands in the universal 'no idea' gesture. At least Cameron's absence gave him the chance to remove her present from his rucksack and slip it under the tree with the others without her knowing.

The repeated slamming of the front door gave John such a start he jumped up in alarm, bumping into the tree and nearly knocking it over. It swayed ominously until Derek grabbed hold of it and steadied it, cursing as its needles pricked him in the hand.

Cameron entered looking murderous.  
>"Someone has broken into the shed. There are board games scattered all over the floor and my present for John is missing" she announced, her fists clenched.<p>

"What?" Sarah and John cried simultaneously, gazing at her in alarm.

A cough from the direction of the tree made them turn. Derek was standing there, fidgeting nervously and shuffling his feet.

"That … err … must have been me. I … um … tripped over a crate" he admitted sheepishly.  
>"And John's present is in his stocking. I took it in with me last night."<p>

"Why did you take my present? How come you found it anyway?"

"I … err … it fell on my foot."

Cameron tilted her head.  
>"The aluminium case I had placed it on is also missing" she informed him.<p>

"Yeah. Well, I … um … took that as well."

"Oh. Is there a drill inside the case? It looked like a kind of tool box."

Derek's face fell.  
>"Yeah, that's right. It's my new toolbox. Look, why don't we start on the presents, eh?"<p>

Sarah rolled her eyes and politely interrupted their discussion.  
>"I'm sure Derek had his best interests at heart. He'll clear away the mess in the shed later on, won't he?" she said pointedly, while Derek mouthed <em>who, me?<em>

"The game of ludo is incomplete. One of the yellow counters is missing" Cameron told them, while John sidled up to her.

Sarah sighed.  
>"Thank you for being so observant, Cameron, but that will hardly be of any importance in the near future, don't you think?"<p>

Cameron stared at her blankly while John grinned and put his arm around his protector's shoulders.  
>"I wouldn't say that, Mom. We might have a go at ludo after dinner. How about it?" he asked, looking between his mother and Derek.<p>

Derek snorted. "Ludo? Us? I bet Sarah doesn't even know how to roll a die."  
>Wilting under her threatening glare he added quickly "Only joking. Course we can have a go."<p>

"Have you ever played ludo before?" John whispered into Cameron's ear.

"No. But how difficult could it be?"

…

"Alright then" Sarah announced, a rare smile on her lips. "Who's going to start on the presents?"

Derek's arm shot up like a schoolboy's, making everybody grin.  
>"What?" he exclaimed in mock astonishment. "Can't a man just be a kid again for once in a while?"<p>

"Go on, then" Sarah nodded her consent, and then turned to her son and the cyborg.  
>"You two go and get your stockings."<p>

While Derek eagerly knelt down by the Christmas tree pulling out the presents from under its branches, John and Cameron made their way into the living room.

"Jeez, yours feels heavy!" John exclaimed as they unhooked their stockings from the hooks next to the fireplace and he held his hand under her bulging rice sack pretending to be legwear.  
>"Looks like Santa left you most of his stuff."<p>

Cameron was rather surprised that Santa had left her anything at all. Letting her stocking dangle from her outstretched hand, she estimated its weight.

"The stocking weighs just over two pounds. The liquids it contains must account for the weight" she concluded, letting the stocking swing slightly from side to side.

"Liquids?" John asked in amazement. "How d'you find that out?"

"The pattern of the pendular motion indicates the presence of two or more receptacles containing liquids" she explained, holding up her swinging stocking in front of him.

John groaned and rolled his eyes.  
><em>I shouldn't have asked…<em>

"Come on" he said, taking her by the hand. "Let's see what else there is."

"Else?" she asked with a puzzled expression, as they crossed the living room.  
>"Will there be any more presents for me?"<p>

"We'll see"

Their stockings dangling from their hands, they made their way back to the Christmas tree to find that Derek had already split the presents up into four small heaps and was eagerly sitting on the floor by the tree in front of what appeared to be his pile.

"Dunno whose those are" he shrugged, pointing behind him at a fairly large parcel which was expertly wrapped in a shop's custom paper, and an ornate envelope still lying under the tree.  
>"There's no name on them."<p>

_Oh no…_  
>Realizing he had obviously forgotten to label his presents, John handed his stocking to Cameron and sheepishly shuffled over to the tree.<br>"Anyone got a pen?" he mumbled, kneeling down next to his uncle.

As soon as Sarah had thrown him the pen she had found in one of the sideboard's drawers and had retrieved it again cursing from under the tree where it had rolled after John had missed it, he jotted down the recipients' names in his famed illegible scrawl.

"_Total forget_…? What is that supposed to mean?" Sarah asked incredulously, leaning over him and trying in vain to decipher her son's dreadful handwriting.

Snatching the parcel out of John's hands, Derek read aloud.  
>"It says: <em>To Cameron from John<em>."  
>He pushed it across the floor up to an even larger package wrapped in newspaper.<p>

At hearing her name, Cameron looked up from busily trying to determine her stocking's contents by analysing the shape of the parcels, only to see two large presents standing side by side on the floor.  
><em>One of those must be from John. I wonder what's inside, it's so big…<em>

"I can read Connorish, you know" Derek announced proudly. Turning to John he added with an evil grin "Your writing was legendary in the future. We all had to learn it."

"Oh, like my cooking was?" Sarah interjected, folding her arms.

"Ah. Well…" Derek gulped.

John shook his head, still amazed at how his mother had managed to make _total forget_ out of his writing.  
><em>Wasn't that a movie?…<em>

Handing Derek the hastily scribbled on envelope, he went over to Cameron who had been quietly watching their interaction and was still quite intrigued by the size of the parcels on her pile.  
>"My writing wasn't that bad, was it?" he whispered, taking back his stocking from her.<p>

"It was. And is."

His indignant retort at Cameron's honest reply paired by one of her tiny smiles was cut short by Derek, who had placed the envelope next to his pile.

"Oi! Since when do you call me _Uncle Derek_?" he inquired, looking a little disgusted at the writing on the envelope.

"Err, I thought it just … um … sounded nicer than _To Mum and Derek_" John explained, starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.

His cheeks were spared their usual pinkness by Sarah, who stormed over to Derek and snatched up the envelope off the floor.  
>"It says <em>To Mum<em> AND _Uncle Derek_. So you thought you'd just hog the lot, would you? Well just for that, I'm having it now."

"Hey, that's not fair" Derek complained, sulking.

Just as John was wondering if he might have done better by splitting his present into two envelopes, Cameron spoke up.  
>"If you like, I could open it for both of you. Then neither of you would feel left out."<p>

Sarah turned to stare at her while Derek quirked an eyebrow.

"Aw shucks" he muttered, turning his head away sheepishly.  
>"No problem, Sarah. You open it."<p>

"No, you were right. That would be unfair. You can open it."

"What! No, I insist."

"Here. You open it."  
>Frantically, Sarah thrust the envelope into Cameron's hand and sat down heavily on one of the chairs at the table.<p>

Giving John a quizzical '_and you really missed this?_' sort of look, Cameron kept hold of the envelope and remained motionless, regarding Sarah patiently, yet blankly.

"What is she waiting for?" Sarah turned to her son, quite at a loss.

"I think she's not sure if she should be the one to start" John told his mother, taking hold of Cameron's hand with a grin and giving it a squeeze.

"Um, I guess Mom meant you should open it _now_" he whispered into her ear.

"Oh. Thank you for explaining."  
>Smiling at him, Cameron used the index finger of her left hand as a letter opener and expertly slit open the envelope.<p>

Twitching and muttering to herself about steam-powered machines and how on earth Skynet ever expected to win with _this_, Sarah got up and stomped over to her pile, which consisted of one single flat wrapped up item. She picked it up and headed back to her chair.

Cameron tilted her head.  
>"Tickets" she exclaimed in surprise, as she pulled out some sheets of paper and unfolded them.<p>

"Eh?" Derek voiced, putting down the parcel he had been impatiently turning over in his hands and getting up from the floor.  
>"What sort of tickets?"<p>

"I don't know. What is a _spay_?" Cameron asked John, turning her puppy-dog eyes on him and making him go weak at the knees.

It had been getting harder and harder for him by the minute to refrain from pulling her into his arms just to hold her tight. She was always so polite, so modest.  
><em>Only not when it comes to showering<em>, John recalled fondly, loving her all the more for it.

"A what?"  
>Derek snatched the sheets of paper out of Cameron's hand before John could answer. His jaw dropped in disbelief as he read.<p>

"A spa" he said tonelessly, turning to stare wide eyed at Sarah.  
>"The daft bleeder's only gone and given us vouchers for a spa."<p>

…


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

A rather confounded Derek Reese stared at the vouchers for quite some time until he eventually handed them to Sarah.  
>"There are four of them" he said, while Sarah glanced at the print-outs in amazement.<br>"That means we can all go—. Wait a minute … _four_ tickets? Isn't that one too many?"

He turned to look at his nephew with a multitude of expressions. John was sure he detected surprise, disgust, fear, and bewilderment amongst them, at least.

"Well of course there are four tickets" Sarah put in, looking up from the printed pamphlet that had been amongst the tickets.  
>"There are four of us, aren't there? You don't think John was about to let Cameron go to a spa with us on her own, did you?"<p>

Treating her son to a wink, she turned her attention back to the pamphlet, smiling whenever she came across words such as massage, sauna, heated pools, or Pilates.

Derek remained standing next to her open-mouthed, trying to rid his mind of the perverse images of relaxing terminators in bikinis and deeming it bad manners to go and get a few beers from the fridge, even if he suddenly felt desperate.

John felt a sudden rush of affection towards his mother. He had expected her to go ballistic over his idea of taking Cameron along, but Sarah actually seemed quite unconcerned, if not happy about the prospect.

"Thanks, Mom" he simply said.

Sarah smiled, not looking up from the delights the pompous pamphlet promised.

"You're welcome."

"Eh?" Derek interjected. "Shouldn't that have just been the other way round?"

"Whatever" mother and son said in unison.

Derek shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair and made his way back to his pile.  
>"Carry on, then" he urged her, discreetly disappearing behind the tree while Sarah finally put down the pamphlet and started to tear the wrapping paper off her present, noticing the decorative way it had been packed and admiring the neat handwriting across the surface: <em>From Cameron to Sarah<em>

"_The Fowl at its Finest_" Sarah read aloud in amazement.  
>"101 turkey recipes. Why thank you, Cameron. Although I do hope you are not implying that my cooking is in the need of following a recipe."<p>

"Not at all, Sarah. I just thought you might be interested in a few … alternative methods of preparation" Cameron deadpanned.

Derek burst out laughing from behind his tree and Sarah eyed the cyborg's impassive face sceptically.  
>"Hmm. Okay then. Not a bad idea" she nodded and opened her cookbook.<p>

"This is from me" Derek mumbled, yanking out what looked like an upturned brown paper bag pulled over something mounted on a pole from behind the tree.

Sarah put her book down and got to her feet, quirking an eyebrow while Cameron put her lips to John's ear and breathed "Thank you for explaining _white lie_ to me", while giving his hand a squeeze. John felt his head spin at the unintentional brushing of her lips against his earlobe.

"What on earth is this?" Sarah exclaimed with a grin, leaning to the left so she was able to read what was printed on the upside-down bag.  
>"<em>Eat at Joe's<em>? That's nice, he's got me a sign post."

"For Chrissake" Derek snapped irritably.  
>"You're supposed to take the bag off, of course. I couldn't think of anything else. And there was no more wrapping paper left."<p>

He eyed Cameron accusingly while Sarah punched him playfully on the shoulder.  
>"Thank you for explaining" she said with a wink, causing John to double up and Cameron to pout.<p>

Deliberately taking her time, she eased the bag off of whatever it was concealing. She let it drop to the floor as she took in the appearance of the metal base plate, the thick springy pole and the pear-shaped dark brown leather object mounted on top.

John roared with laughter at seeing his mother stand aghast in front of her new punch ball. Her eyes narrowing, Sarah slowly turned to face Derek with an expression that promised imminent doom.  
>Uneasily fiddling with the collar of his shirt, Derek cringed behind the punch ball and turned it until a small photograph of himself came into view which he had taped to one side.<p>

"There" he said, indicating his picture. "Before you go all nuclear on me again you can let it out on him."

"Great idea, Derek" John wheezed, howling with mirth and clinging to Cameron for support. "She bust the last one not so long ago."

"Really?"

Not so sure that this had been a good idea after all and subconsciously taking a step back from the woman who was capable of bursting punch bags, Derek smiled feebly.

Her initial indignation having subsided, Sarah started to grin, too.  
>"Dammit, Derek" she said, taking a perfunctory swipe at the ball.<br>"Oh well, thanks I guess. I missed not being able to work out with one of those. It's great for getting rid of unnecessary calories."

Cameron turned to John who was still quivering at her side, trying to stem his laughing fit. Looking him up and down, she poked him in the abdomen.  
>"Once the ball has been properly installed you should occupy yourself with it for half an hour each day, John. This would reduce your—"<p>

She broke off flinching, as John poked her in the ribs.  
>"Are you implying that I'm portly?" he demanded in mock exasperation, folding his arms in front of his chest and practising his 'John Connor' look on her.<br>Cameron merely stared at him blankly, but gave herself away by the tiniest of quirks of her lips.

"Aha!" John cried, pointing at the give-away sign he would always be able to read.

She scrunched up her face irritably.  
><em>How does he know?…<em>

"Enough of larking about" Sarah commanded. "Cameron's right, John. It'll do you good to get some exercise for a change."

Cutting off her son's retort before he could find the right words, she addressed the cyborg.  
>"Can you set up a daily work out routine for him?"<p>

Cameron nodded.

"And see to it that he sticks to it" she added, after hearing John's indignant spluttering.

Cameron nodded again.  
>"I swear."<p>

"Traitor" John whispered in her ear. "You dare!"

Cameron smiled impishly at him and breathed "Wait and see, John."

_What's that supposed to mean?…_  
>A somewhat puzzled John turned his attention back to his uncle who had eagerly started to tear off the wrapping paper from a fairly large square parcel, having come to the decision that it was now his turn.<p>

"From Sarah to Reese" he read, ripping off the last of the paper a little more apprehensively.  
><em>Wonder what she got me…<em>

"Wow! A total care set for me choppers!" Derek exclaimed gleefully, repeatedly turning the colourful box round in his hands.  
>"Would you look at that? It's even got a mouthwash and rinse function. And look at all the gadgets! I'll be the envy of every dentist in town" he joked happily.<br>"Thanks, Sarah."  
><em>She probably felt guilty about nicking my first toothbrush…<em>

"Anytime, as long as you don't keep using mine" Sarah reminded him with an evil smirk.

_She's never gonna let me live that down…_  
>Derek sighed and shook his head while he reached for his second parcel. It was wrapped remarkably well, and somehow resembled a large toffee.<p>

"From Cameron to Derek?" he read out, looking up at the cyborg in disbelief.  
>"Did you wrap this?"<p>

Cameron nodded.

"Not bad."  
>Admiring the neat frilly ends and the perfectly folded joins without a trace of sticky tape, an impressed and also slightly ashamed Derek thought of the gifts he had haphazardly managed to cover with more Sellotape than paper.<br>He grabbed the frilly bits at either end and tore the paper apart like a cracker, revealing a blue spray can of oil.

"Would you credit it!" he exclaimed in surprise. "I was looking for one of those only last night. Great!"

Cameron smiled at John, pleased that their idea had been a good one, while Sarah nonchalantly sidled up to Derek, seemingly taking an interest in his penetrating oil.

"Derek" she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Did you get her anything?"

"Eh?" Derek remarked, his attention having been focussed entirely on the appearance of the first Christmas presents he'd received in years.

"Cameron" Sarah hissed. "Did you get her a present, too?"

"Course I did" Derek replied a little hurt. "What did you think I'd been doing all day after I dumped you at MacDonalds?"

She nodded in comprehension and returned to her chair, picking up her book and flipping through the pages.  
>"Come on, you two. Get your presents opened. I want to start on that turkey."<p>

…

"We don't usually re-use the wrapping paper, Cameron. You can safely tear it off" John told her after Sarah and Derek had both let out impatient sighs at having watched her for over five minutes meticulously picking at the Sellotape on her first present and carefully peeling back the paper as if she were eating a banana.

"Oh" Cameron exclaimed in surprise. "Thank you for explaining."

Starting to wish he hadn't let her unpack her presents first, John glanced at his stocking longingly, eager to get on with his.

"This is from Sarah" she announced before she ripped the paper off the present in one go.

"Nail varnish" John grinned at his mother. "That's cool."

Cameron examined the bargain-size packet containing five different colours.  
>"The pink one is my favourite, Sarah. Thank you."<p>

"It should stop you from using mine" Sarah deadpanned, making John and Derek snigger and Cameron tilt her head.

She tipped the rest of the presents out of her stocking and picked up a cylindrical one.  
>"This one has no name on it. And it contains a liquid" she informed them.<p>

John immediately marched over to his uncle, remembering his former assumption of what Derek might decide to give her.  
>"You didn't, did you?" he demanded in disbelief.<p>

"Did what?" Derek asked, turning to his nephew and regarding him rather confused.

"Never mind" John said, shaking his head and adding in a whisper "But you did get her something, didn't you?"

"Why do people keep asking me the same question?" Derek retorted sourly, throwing his arms into the air in exasperation. "Course I did. Wait and see."

With that, he turned away from his nephew in a huff and watched Cameron undo the parcel Sarah had given back to her after she had examined it and found it to have been from her.

"Nail varnish remover. Thank you, Sarah. Now I won't have to borrow yours."

John had returned to his position on the floor next to Cameron and was looking at the next present she had picked up.  
>"This one's from Mom as well. I don't believe it…"<p>

The flat rectangular parcel contained a deluxe set of makeup, mascara and eye shadow colours complete with all the necessary applicatory items such as puffs, little sponges on rods and a mirror.  
>John watched in fascination as Cameron at once pulled out one of those little spongy things and began applying a greenish sort of eye shadow.<br>As soon as she had finished she closed her eyes and turned to him.

"Nice. It's … um … green" he muttered, uncertain of what to say and recalling the time she had faced him in the same fashion back at school once. He had shouted at her that day.  
><em>I'm sorry…<em>

He swore he heard her sigh as she jerked her head away in a huff and began to put the items she had used back in their proper places.

"Thank you, Sarah. It's a tight present."

Sarah smiled.  
>"I'm glad you like it. And I'm sure John will appreciate it, too."<p>

John meanwhile was faking an immense interest in the various types of mascara to get back into Cameron's good books.  
>"Yeah. There's some great stuff in here" he confirmed, holding up a tube of mascara.<br>"I kind of like the idea of you with black lips."

Cameron stared at him blankly for a while before snatching the mascara out of his grasp and replacing it.  
>"You can buy me some black lip gloss then when we go shopping" she informed him with a slight air of haughtiness.<p>

Scratching his head and wondering what he had done wrong this time, John noticed the golden lettering on the transparent lid of the beauty case.

"_Natural beauty_? All that lot?" he asked in amazement, briefly counting the vast amount of different colours and shades.

"Yes" Cameron nodded, gazing at her fingernails and idly wondering which nail varnish would go best with her eye shadow.  
>"Human girls seem to require far too much makeup to look natural."<p>

"Um, yeah" John said flabbergasted, immediately thinking of Riley and wondering what she may really have looked like.

"Well, whatever you put on, you'll always look pretty" he told her in earnest, earning himself a shy little smile.

"Thank you, John" Cameron breathed, picking up the last present her stocking had contained.  
>"This is also from Sarah" she informed him. "And it contains another liquid."<p>

_That's nice, isn't it? I bet I'll only get one from Mom…_

"Eye makeup remover. Good" Cameron observed contently after she had unpacked it.  
>"I shall be needing that before dinner."<p>

"What for?" John inquired, admiring the way the scarce amount of pale green eye shadow she had applied seemed to accentuate the shine of her huge brown eyes.  
>"Aren't you going to leave it on?"<p>

She quirked an eyebrow at him and sighed.  
>"John, my dress is blue."<p>

"So?"

Ignoring him and coming to the conclusion that John was in desperate needs of not only physical work out routines, Cameron leaned forward and pulled a very large parcel wrapped in newspaper towards her. She smiled slightly at the amateur way it was wrapped and was surprised to experience a strong feeling of curiosity paired with trepidation.  
><em>This must be from John…<em>

Scanning the newspapers for signs of John's hieroglyphic handwriting, Cameron lifted the parcel and turned it round in her hands. With a confused tilt of her head, she overrode her HUD's reference to the parcel's dimensions and the suggestion it displayed. How could this possibly be the aluminium toolbox from the shed onto which she had placed John's present?

Cameron froze as she discovered the writing on one of the sides, just below an advertisement for cordless power drills.

_From Derek to █ Cameron_

"It's from … Derek" she said quietly, turning to John in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" John asked, bending over the parcel to read the writing. Dumbfounded, he gazed up at his uncle. Derek winked.

Cameron analyzed the writing. A letter had been blotted out in front of her name. It looked like Derek had paused a while before hastily writing her name, the letters' different angles and the lower density of the ink giving rise to this assumption. She switched to a different visual range to be able to identify the blotted out letter by the indentations it had left on the paper. It was a 'T'…

A little flattered, Cameron tore the newspapers off of Derek's present. Her jaw dropped in surprise and she let the aluminium case sink to the floor with a thud.

"Hey! Careful!" Derek shouted.

John frowned at the case. There was something strangely familiar about it. He was sure he'd seen that thing somewhere before, but for the life of him he couldn't remember when.

"Thank you, Derek" Cameron said politely. "But wouldn't it be more appropriate if you kept the drill for your car?"

"Drill? What drill?" Derek asked a little baffled.

"This is the tool case I saw in the shed."

Comprehension dawning, Derek let out a snort of laughter.  
>"Well, yeah, you could say that I suppose."<p>

John watched on apprehensively as Cameron undid the fasteners and threw back the lid. Even Sarah had put her cookbook down and had come over to get a better look at whatever Derek had thought up.  
>Deciding she would hit Derek if the case contained thermite, Sarah subconsciously placed a hand on John's shoulder as Cameron flapped the two halves of the case apart.<p>

Sarah's jaw dropped and her hand slid off her son's shoulder. John whooped. Cameron merely stared at the case's contents.

"A toolkit?" Sarah exclaimed incredulously. "You got her a toolkit?"

"That's no toolkit, Mom" John explained breathlessly, recognizing the various stainless steel instruments in their holders. "It's a paramedic kit."  
>Turing to his uncle, he added "That's Charley's, isn't it?"<p>

Derek looked sheepishly from side to side and fiddled with the cap of his oil can. Not meeting his nephew's eye, he nodded.  
>"Yup."<p>

"Charley's?" Sarah put in frowning. "Where did you get hold of that?"

Derek looked like he would much rather have left and gone to his room with a few six-packs and a television set then to divulge matters he knew Sarah would get all uptight about.  
><em>She wouldn't understand…<em>

"I … err … took it. From the lighthouse" he said under his breath, feebly hoping she would be satisfied by that and he could let it ride.

"The lighthouse!" Sarah roared. "How the hell do you know about that? That was a safe house, I never told anybody about it."

"Safe house indeed" Derek sneered, his temper flaring up. "Some safe house that turned out to be. You may as well have dumped him on 'John Connor Island' with a bull's-eye painted on his back."

"He was with Charley, don't you forget that" Sarah snapped, whacking her new cookbook down on the table and jumping to her feet.

"Oh yeah. Charley" he sneered, dropping his oil can and awkwardly standing up, his legs having gone to sleep after crouching on the floor for quite some time.  
>"Lot of good that did. Charley was last seen floating off the coast with a hole in his chest. I'm sorry, Sarah, but the guy had no idea about security and what it takes to achieve it. You should never have let John stay there on his own. In a lighthouse with no exits. It could have got him killed, do you know that?"<p>

Sarah's retort died in her throat. Breathing heavily, she leant forward propping herself up on the table on her clenched fists, and fixed Derek with a piercing gaze.  
>"How did you find out about the lighthouse?" she inquired quietly, although her voice still shook slightly.<p>

"I have my methods" Derek simply said, squaring up to her. "I'm not only 'Funny Derek', you know."

"Derek? Mom?"

A shaken John was looking up at them from the floor next to Cameron, surgical scissors and tweezers in one hand, while Cameron had donned her scary robot face and was holding his other hand, gently stroking his palm.

"Please let it go. This is also Cameron's first Christmas, not only mine" he said imploringly.  
>"We don't need to be reminded of all that today."<p>

Sarah's fists unclenched. She took a step back and sighed. Derek's shoulders slumped and he took hold of the back of a chair to support himself because one of his legs still felt dead.

"Sorry" he muttered gruffly.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, too, John" Sarah admitted, nervously fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt.

Sighing, John laced his fingers through Cameron's and offered her what he hoped was a complacent smile since she was still looking seriously miffed.  
><em>She always gets upset when she thinks something's got to me…<em>

"Derek?" he inquired after reassuring himself that his uncle had calmed down seeing he had sat on a chair at the table.  
>"Why did you keep Charley's kit?"<p>

His cheeks turning slightly pink, Derek fidgeted awkwardly in his chair.  
>"Well, it saved my life, didn't it?"<p>

John nodded in comprehension, sparing his uncle the shame of disclosing any other nostalgic details which may have disrupted his reputation of being a badass soldier.  
>"But why are you giving it to Cameron, then?"<p>

"Well, she needs patching up ever so often and since you don't have the proper equipment—"  
>He broke off, the hard look on his face telling John about the inner conflict still raging inside his uncle about <em>metal<em> and Cameron.

"Thanks, Derek" he said, bringing Cameron's hand up to his mouth and planting a small kiss on her fingers.

"Thank you, Derek" Cameron said sincerely, the tiniest of smiles present on her face instead of the usually blank look she supported when speaking to the resistance fighter.  
>"I appreciate it."<p>

Derek grunted and nodded his head, pulling Sarah's book towards him.  
>"How about getting a move on? I'm starting to feel peckish."<p>

Grinning, John picked up Cameron's last present and handed it to her.  
>"This is from me. I hope you'll like it."<p>

Carefully, she lifted the parcel out of his hands and revolved it scrutinously.

"You didn't wrap this, John" she stated, studying the expert way the paper had been folded and taped down.  
><em>The pattern of the sticky tape's application implies a left-handed person…<em>

"Eh?" John spluttered. "How did you … I mean—"

"Never mind."

She tore the paper off with a flick of her wrist and placed it down beside her. Now holding a glossy dark blue cardboard box with little white reindeers and sleighs decoratively printed all over it, Cameron apprehensively placed her fingers on the rim of the lid.

John stared in confusion at the gaudy box, trying to remember what he had said to the shoe shop's assistant apart from asking her to wrap his purchase in secret.  
><em>Neat. The fat lady must have packed them in there free of charge…<em>

A tiny squeak of delight and a lightning peck on his cheek brought him out of his musings. Cameron held up her brand new pair of fluffy wool-lined boots and grinned broadly from ear to ear.  
>"Thank you, John. They're tight."<p>

"No, I don't think so. They should be just your size" John presumed, dreamily feeling his cheek go numb.

Cameron tilted her head.  
>"No. I mean I like them. They're … awesome?"<p>

John grinned at her innocent inquiring look.  
>"Only joking. I'm glad you like them."<p>

She turned the boots over revealing their size and stared at John in amazement.  
>"How did you guess my size?"<p>

"Ah" John said, holding up his index finger. "I'm a man of mystery."

A derisive snort from both Sarah and Derek made John's outstretched finger falter. Huffing, he turned his back on them and watched as Cameron stood her new boots next to her, ready to try them on. He decided on the spot to buy her a pair of trainers she could wear indoors, since it seemed to take her forever to undo her combat boots and slip them off.  
>John fondly took in her combination of black leather combat boots with the pale blue girlie tracksuit and grinned. It was just such a <em>Cameron<em> thing to do.

"Well, do they fit?" he asked, as she stood up and looked down at her feet.

"The size is perfect. They only clash with the colour of my tracksuit."

John rolled his eyes and sighed.  
><em>And the combat boots don't of course…<em>

"Which my combat boots don't" she observed, much to John's stupefaction.

She sat down again, pulled the boots off and dangled them in front of his face.  
>"But that doesn't matter since I shan't be wearing them indoors. Can we go out later so I can wear them?"<p>

"Go out?" Sarah interjected. "I don't think so. It's still freezing out there."

Cameron read the genuine concern in the woman's voice. It pleased her greatly not to be at the receiving end of Sarah's rage against machines anymore. She did not know what had brought upon this miraculous change of events, but she knew she was going to cling to this thin line she called hope.  
>"Thank you for your concern, Sarah. We'll be careful this time and we won't go far. I swear."<p>

"That's what I got her those boots for, Mom. So she'd be nice and warm" John put in, grinning at them both. "And she can have one of my scarves."

Mollified, but still not completely satisfied, Sarah nodded.  
>"Fine. But don't get soaking wet again."<p>

"We won't" John said, eying Cameron mischievously. "That is, if Cameron can parry my superior snowball throwing skills this time."

The slight parting of her lips showed her indignation at John's blatant lie. Pouting, she pulled her combat boots back on and took her time doing them up whilst ignoring him ostentatiously. All of a sudden, the wrapping paper with John's handwriting on it caught her eye.

"Why did you write _Total forget_ on it, John?" she inquired tilting her head, a blank expression on her face.

"What? Surly you can read my writing?" he asked scandalized before remembering something.  
>"Wait a minute. Derek's already interpreted that … I mean—"<p>

"Got you" she exclaimed, poking him in the ribs.

Her evil smile told him that he had just been made a fool of. She had obviously been trying hard not to let him read her, and had this time succeeded in expertly maintaining her blank face.

"Just you wait till we're alone. I'll show you…" John hissed, grabbing her by the arms and scowling.

"I might like that" Cameron breathed with a seductive smile.

John froze. Groaning feebly, he let go of her and buried his face in his hands, his ears turning purple.

…


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

It was quite a pile. Now it was finally his turn to tackle his presents and John had to admit he'd never seen quite so many. He had been secretly looking forward to unwrapping them since yesterday and had been counting on receiving two at most. But double the amount was highly unexpected. There was one from Derek, two from his mother, and one from … Cameron.

He remembered her distress about not being able to choose a surprise present for him. He remembered telling her that she need not give him anything, that her presence alone was gift enough for him, yet she had still somehow succeeded in procuring something without him knowing.  
>Almost reverently putting her present aside to be opened last of all, John picked up a large flat and soft parcel. <em>To John from Mum<em> was sketched across the surface. With some difficulty owing to the abundance of Sellotape his mother had used, he finally managed to tear the wrapping paper off it.

"Trousers?" John commented, holding up the dark blue and rather stiff looking pair.

"Jeans, John" Sarah clarified. "A fine pair without any holes. You've been running around like a tramp for too long now. It's time you started acting your age."

The pair Cameron had given him before breakfast had been bad enough, but these looked as hard as a board. Nevertheless, he had to admit that they did look nice, and had probably been quite expensive judging by the brand name. All he'd ever had was cheapo Lewis or Brangler, but these Barberry ones seemed downright classy, something he was never about to admit to his mother, of course.

"Well, err, thanks, Mom" he mumbled, putting the trousers down and noticing the appreciative glances Cameron and his mother were sharing.  
><em>I wonder if they send out waves to one another or something…<em>

"Don't be so enthusiastic, John" Sarah put in snidely. "I'm sure General Connor doesn't go about with holes in his jeans in the future."

The narrowing of Cameron's eyes and Derek's sudden sheepish grin told her that that was just what General Connor did do. Not believing what she was witnessing, Sarah deflated.

"Whatever. Make sure he tries them on and doesn't just dump them in his dresser" she said irritably, addressing Cameron.

"I swear."

Her evil smirk didn't go unnoticed by John.  
>Giving his new jeans a rather insolent glare, he wondered where his mother had bought them. H&amp;M's usually only had cheap quality stuff and he'd never been to any other clothes store in his life.<br>_I might soon get to see Victoria's Secret, though…_  
>Thinking with pleasure that he would be going shopping with Cameron in the near future, he happily picked up the largest parcel and set about unwrapping it.<br>It was also from his mother. And also soft.

_Please not more clothing…_

The last piece of tape dug into his fingers as he tore it apart and the paper fell off revealing a large khaki coloured rucksack made of some heavy duty material with reinforced stitching.  
>"Wow. This is just like my old one, only I can get more in it. Thanks, Mom. It's tight." he said joyfully, slinging it over his shoulders and expertly adjusting the straps' metal buckles to fit him more comfortably.<p>

"I knew you'd say that" Sarah sighed, thinking to herself how right she had been at reconsidering and swapping the handsome dark blue nylon one she had chosen for this more military style one in the last possible moment, right after she had decided to buy him a new pair of trousers all the same.

John stuffed the jeans into his new rucksack, not noticing the scolding glares from both Cameron and Sarah at how he had rolled them up into a ball. He then picked up a rectangular flat present which was completely covered in sticky tape. Printed across it in big smeared letters was _To John from Derek_.

"I'll need scissors for this" John declared, picking at the tape in vain.

Cameron went into the kitchen and returned with a pair which she handed to him.  
>"Be careful. They're sharp" she said, bending down to pull out the jeans he had stuffed into his rucksack and folding them nicely before she replaced them.<p>

Earning herself an approving nod from Sarah and choosing to ignore John's spluttering about not being a kid anymore, she got up and left him to open his parcel.

"The Wizard of Oz!" John turned to look at his uncle inquiringly. "But we've got it over in the living room."

"Ah. But not this one. Open it" Derek urged, a big smile on his face.

John flipped open the cover while, with a frown, Sarah mouthed silently at Derek _I thought you'd got him a baseball book_.

He nearly dropped the book as he saw his mother's handwriting on the back of the frontispiece.

_ Dear John _  
><em>Have a very happy 6<em>_th__ birthday. _  
><em> Love, Mum <em>

It was the copy that had been left in their old house and which had been supposedly burnt. The one Sarah had given her son for his birthday so many years ago, before she had been taken away to the Pescadero State Hospital. It had been one of the few presents she had ever given him. It had accompanied him wherever he went, he had taken it to Todd and Janelle's and he'd had it on him when he had busted Sarah out of the institute with the help of Uncle Bob. Derek had guessed the part of the house where the living room with its book cases had been to be still standing, and he had been right.

"Derek—"  
>John broke off, a lump rising in his throat, but his uncle understood and grinned while Sarah went up to her son to ruffle his hair.<p>

"We don't wanna change the future completely, do we?" Derek said gruffly.

Mother and son both looked at each other and then at Derek quizzically.

He merely smiled at Cameron who returned the smile cryptically.

John and Sarah would never know that this book was one of General Connor's greatest treasures, keeping alive the memory of his mother, of his childhood, of better days. Derek had seen the book lying on his General's desk when he had been summoned to his office to discuss a secret mission and had studied it curiously. Not many books had survived the apocalypse.  
>Future John had noticed Derek's interest in the book and had told him about it on the spur of the moment, even showing him his mother's writing. They had spent well over an hour reliving the past together that day and John had told him how his mother used to read it to him and that he enjoyed it being read to him to this day.<br>Derek had concluded that it could only be the _machine_ who would be reading it to him and had felt quite sick at the time. He understood now, though.

"Have I missed something?" Sarah remarked at the unprecedented attitude of mutual respect suddenly present between resistance fighter and machine.

John shrugged his shoulders and picked up his last present.

_From Cameron to John_

Her small, neat handwriting was printed on a diagonal stripe going round the parcel. Somehow, she had managed to decorate it using only the wrapping paper itself, similar to the way she had wrapped Sarah's. Apprehensively, John picked at the folds on the sides, trying not to tear the paper.  
><em>She packed this for me…<em>

"You said we don't keep the paper for reusing, John. Why are you being so careful with it?" Cameron asked with a tilt of her head.

"Because it's … um … well …" he stammered, before adding in an undertone, so that neither Derek nor Sarah would overhear. "I just … err … like the pattern."

Cameron tilted her head even more.

It took him quite a while to get the paper off without damaging it. He folded it carefully so her writing was showing and laid it aside with the intention of placing it in the top drawer of his dresser, the one that already contained Cameron's photograph.  
><em>Wait a second. Wasn't that the one in the Jeep?…<em>

Telling himself that he would check to see if it was still there later on, he glanced down at the tin box in his hand. It seemed very old, a little battered and also had specks of rust around the rims. John gripped the lid and tried to pull it off but it was on far too tight. Placing the tip of the scissors under the rim, he finally managed to prise the lid off, nearly cutting himself on its sharp edges in the process.

Cameron approached him and knelt down beside him. She took the lid from him, reached for his hand and examined it, fearful that her choice of container had harmed him. John's breath caught in his throat as her slender fingers briefly laced through his and gave his hand a squeeze.  
>With a dazed and rather goofy smile, he glanced down into the open tin. A piece of dark green cloth lay folded up inside which slightly resembled the old tablecloth Sarah had cut up and dumped in the shed to be used as rags a few weeks ago.<br>Quirking an eyebrow, John lifted the cloth out of the tin and slowly unfolded it on the floor, revealing its contents.

"What! Another one?" he gazed at Cameron in shock. "Why?"

A silver pocket watch on a chain lay on the green cloth, sparkling and glittering in the Christmas tree's lights. On second thoughts though, it seemed a little larger than the last one, more like a locket. And it was oval.

"Open it" Cameron said softly, lifting the locket by its chain and letting it fall gently onto John's outstretched palm.

He stared at it for a long time before he hesitantly gripped it by the edge and pulled at its cover all but gently. It opened rather stiffly, as if it hadn't been used in a very long time. Fastened to the bottom of the chain's inside fittings was a key-ring and it was onto this a flat thin key was attached. John gaped at it.

"It's just a symbol, John. I had no time to get you a real present" Cameron explained, seeing his puzzled expression. "I'm sorry" she added sadly.

"It's beautiful" John breathed, studying the intricate ornamental carvings around the rim and the minute inlay work on the lid which depicted a dove.  
>"But why the key …?"<p>

"It's the key to my heart."

She reached out and took it from him, cautiously lifting its chain over his inclined head and hanging it round his neck.

"You found it once but we lost it. So I'm giving it back to you" she breathed in his ear.

Her huge dark eyes so full of innocence and the hopeful, yet insecure undertone to her voice was all it took for John. Trying desperately to hold back his tears he leaned forward and put his arms around her, holding her tight and burying his face in her hair.

"Thank you" he whispered hoarsely. "I'll never loose it again. I promise."

They stayed in the same position for what seemed like ages. Cameron had hesitantly lifted her arms to awkwardly embrace John while he leant on her shoulder, gently stroking the back of her head. Finally, she closed her eyes and revelled in the profound, yet familiar and strangely pleasurable sensations coursing through her entire body.

_Don't let go, John…_

_Don't leave me, Cameron…_

Lost in their own thoughts, they continued to kneel on the floor, their arms wrapped round each other. John remembered how he had distanced himself from her and turned to Riley, ignoring his own feelings and reducing her words, her proclamation to mere programming, telling himself that it was all a trick. When he had lost her heart.  
>Cameron remembered nearly killing her John, telling him that things had changed, that he could not be trusted anymore. When she had lost his heart.<br>A strong feeling of pain coursed through her, creating a peak in her system. She gasped and tightened her grip on him, her fingernails digging into his skin through his T-shirt.

"Oi! For Chrissake, get a room, you two!"

Derek had got to his feet and was staring at them with a painful mixture of utter revulsion and genuine curiosity, his arms on his hips.

"Although I'm not really sure if that would work— Ow!"

He doubled up as Sarah punched him in the ribs.

"Dammit, Sarah. What did I give you that ball for?" he wheezed, hobbling back to his chair and sitting down.

"That" Sarah said ominously, gesturing between John and Cameron who had instantly sprung apart at Derek's remark and were now both kneeling next to each other looking rather bashfully at some interesting patterns on the carpet.  
>"That is something I'm not so sure I want to see. Keep all that for when you're on your own. Got it?"<p>

"Yes, Mom" John said awkwardly to the floor, a slight shade of red creeping up his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Sarah" Cameron said demurely, gazing up at her with the vaguest trace of a puppy-dog look that made Sarah roll her eyes.

Sighing, she waved them off.  
>"Keep that look for my son. Why don't you go and take your presents upstairs? It's time I got started in the kitchen."<br>She looked at the clock on the wall. "I bet Derek will be ravenous by the time that turkey's done."

Derek was still clutching his chest, his eyes watering.  
>"Yeah. And getting her in that kitchen might keep her occupied."<p>

"I beg your pardon?"

Knocking the punch ball over, Sarah slowly advanced on Derek who put his arms over his face and cried "Don't hurt the afflicted!"

…


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

_So that was my first Christmas…_  
>Stopping at the dining room door, John turned to take a last look at the room before they left. He wanted to intensify the memory of his first ever Christmas. Of Cameron's Christmas.<br>His mother had sat down at the table again and was happily turning over the pages of her cookbook, obviously deciding which one was going to be her new favourite recipe. His uncle had unpacked his electric toothbrush and was trying to figure out how all the bits and pieces and various gadgets had been crammed into such a small box in the first place.  
>Cameron was standing next to him carrying her presents, patiently waiting for him to finish committing everything to memory. John took in the fluffy boots she was holding, the loving way she was studying him and the reflection of the Christmas tree's lights in her enormous eyes.<br>It was as if he had suddenly stopped being lonely John Connor, if only for a day, and had taken on someone else's life. Someone with a normal life. With piles of screwed up wrapping paper, with the smell of a pine tree festively decorated for Christmas, with a family.

_There's no fate but what we make…_  
>Smiling broadly, John took the paramedic case off Cameron and held out his hand. She took it and they left the dining room with its sparkling decorations and the special, comfortable warmth only Christmas Day can invoke.<br>Certain that he would never trade his life for anything in the world, John was overwhelmed with joy at having been able to spend this day with people that mattered to him.  
>With his family.<p>

"I hope Mom and Derek will enjoy going to the spa" John said, as they climbed the stairs.  
>"I just thought it would be a good idea for them to get away from it all for a while, you know?"<p>

"No. I don't know" Cameron replied in a tiny voice. "I never found out what it was like to get away from it all."

John's breath caught in his throat. Once again, he had to think of how she'd had to endure his snide, brattish remarks in the past.

_What are you doing?…_

_Feeling what it's like to get away from it all…_

_I don't think you are…_

His grip tightened on her hand as he sought to assure her with all the conviction his voice could possibly convey.  
>"You will, Cameron. I'll make sure of that. You'll feel the wind through your fingers. And you'll feel the water on your skin."<p>

She stroked his palm with her thumb and gazed up at him with a thankful, yet strangely bashful expression.

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't swim."

Being reminded of the day Cromartie had nearly succeeded in drowning him sent a shiver down his spine. He had tried to ditch Cameron because of Riley that day. He had done anything he could think of to push her away, to get rid of her. He had shouted at her, insulted her and been just plainly unpleasant to her for no apparent reason. And to put the tin hat on it, he had accused her of not helping him in time when Cromartie had finally closed in on him.

"I should really have drowned…"

Cameron stopped dead at the top of the stairs and looked at him in shock.  
>"What?"<p>

"Never mind."  
>He swallowed and squeezed her hand, still feeling dreadfully sorry for how he had treated her for such a long time, and not really sure if he would ever be able to make it up to her.<br>_I will. And if it takes me a lifetime…_

"The pools in the spa will only be about waist-high" John told her as they walked down the landing. "You won't drown, err, sink … I mean … whatever."

"That's okay then. Because I wouldn't want to look like a freak."

"What makes you say that? You know you never look like a freak" he grinned, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as they stopped outside his room.

"We can function under water, John. It would not be wise if people saw me playing submarines."

John burst out laughing and dropped the case he was carrying onto his foot. Between howls of mirth and pain, he hopped on one leg, gesticulating madly in the air as if he were pulling something up and down.  
>"All you need now is a built in periscope" he wheezed.<p>

Cameron stamped on his remaining foot causing him to wince and change over to hop on the other leg before she threw open the door and stalked into his room in a huff.  
>Hobbling after her, John heaved the heavy case up onto the stool next to his door and dumped his rucksack on the floor.<p>

She was standing in the middle of the room with her back to him still holding her fluffy boots and her stocking.

John sighed.  
><em>Why can't I keep my mouth shut? Somehow I'm always falling over me…<em>  
>"Cameron, I'm sorry. It was only a joke. You're right, it would look weird if—"<p>

He broke off as she turned around abruptly, a proud little smirk on her face.  
>"Got you again."<p>

"You, you …"

He was just about to pounce on her in mock outrage and give her a thorough tickling when a sudden thought struck him. Stopping in his tracks he stared at her, horrified.

"What's wrong, John?" Cameron inquired, immediately back to her usual vigilant self, regarding him with concern.

"We can't go" he whispered, his shoulders slumping and looking utterly defeated.

"Go? Go where?"

"To the spa" he said tonelessly. "We can't go. You might get wet. I mean, your chip might."  
>He shook his head. "I should have thought of that. I'm sorry, Cameron."<p>

Cameron's lips parted in surprise. She felt she would never get used to him being so considerate, so caring towards her. Smiling at him, she took his hand into hers.  
>"That's not how we work, John. I shower. I wash my hair. I wouldn't be worth much if my skin weren't waterproof."<p>

John twiddled the locket hanging round his neck in his fingers.  
>"I know that, Cameron. It's just—"<p>

Not sure how to phrase his words, he broke off. He felt responsible for her, he felt it was his fault that she had been injured, that her port had been damaged. If he hadn't made such a big thing about his lousy birthday this would never have happened.  
><em>And she was going to get my cake and all. Dammit…<em>

"I'm scared… I … I don't want to lose you."

She inclined her head and rested it lightly on his shoulder, not letting go of his hand.  
>"I'll never leave you, John."<p>

His tone was determined but his face betrayed his insecurity.  
>"Promise?"<p>

"Promise."

…

"I'm ordering pizza."  
>Getting to his feet, Derek headed for the sideboard and reached for his mobile.<p>

"Ree-eese."

His hand hovering over his phone, he halted immediately, owing to the threatening undertone of Sarah's voice.  
>"What?"<p>

"You're not ordering pizza. Do you think I intend to sweat over a hot stove for the rest of the day while you stuff yourself sick?" she barked, looking up from her cookbook and causing him to recoil.

Derek fixed her balefully.  
>"I'm hungry, Sarah. And you've been sitting over that damn book for half an hour. Seems like you're never gonna start on that bird."<p>

Sarah closed the book with a snap and glared at him.  
>"It would speed things up if you'd lend me a hand."<p>

He rolled up his sleeves and clapped his hands together.  
>"Done. What am I to do?"<p>

Sarah's eyebrows nearly left her forehead as she took in the appearance of one Derek Reese with his eager, yet unprecedented culinary intentions.  
><em>This isn't happening…<em>  
>"Well, you could start with taking the turkey out of its wrapping, I suppose. It's in the left sink. I hope it's thawed out."<p>

She got up and beckoned Derek to follow her, carrying her cookbook as if it were a priceless gem. They entered the kitchen and Sarah went over to the oven, opening it.

"I do hope it'll fit into one of them" she said anxiously, as she pulled out the large tray and the casserole she had found in the kitchen cupboard yesterday and laid them on the counter.

Derek had meanwhile managed to rip the cling foil off the turkey and was holding it up by its wings.  
>"Damn, it's heavy. Why the hell did they choose such a big one?"<p>

Sarah merely shrugged her shoulders and brought the casserole over to the sink.

"Nah, I don't think that'll work, Sarah" Derek voiced, observing that the turkey was much fatter than the casserole was round, something which disturbingly reminded him of the pair of trousers he had not fitted into the other day.

The bird perched on top of the casserole resembled a baby sitting on its potty.

"You're right" Sarah agreed, whipping the dish out from under it while Derek lifted the turkey again. She dumped the casserole in the sink and went to fetch the tray.  
>"I just hope this is deep enough."<p>

"It will be" Derek affirmed, placing the turkey dead centre on the tray.  
>"See? And there's even enough room around it for spuds and onions."<p>

"How did you know I was going to put—?"

He interrupted her with a wink.  
>"Easy. Me old mum used to cook it that way. '<em>Can't have Christmas turkey without baked spuds and onions<em>', she used to say."

"So you knew all along how to prepare it? And why, for Pete's sake, did you let me stick my nose in that cookbook for hours, then?" Sarah cried in exasperation.

Derek shuffled his feet sheepishly on the floor.  
>"Err, well, you didn't ask."<br>Watching Sarah swell ominously, he quickly added "And Cameron would have been disappointed if you hadn't used one of the recipes out of her book."

Praying that she had swallowed his manoeuvre, he carried the tray with the turkey over to the open oven, bent down and slipped it inside. It was a tight fit all round, but he managed to ease it in, the turkey almost touching the top.  
>Closing the oven door and chancing a sideways glance towards the counter to where Sarah had been standing he noticed he was suddenly alone in the kitchen.<br>_She hasn't exploded or something…_

Not putting it past Sarah that she would explode with rage and simply cease to exist one of these days, Derek turned and scratched the back of his head quite at a loss.

A sudden commotion from the larder made him jump. Instinctively drawing the gun from his waistband, he surveyed the room and briefly peered through the window to check the drive for any suspicious vehicles as he advanced towards the source of the noise.  
>Curses and mutterings from inside the larder caused Derek to breathe a sigh of relief and lower his weapon. Shaking his head, he replaced his gun in his waistband and opened the larder door to reveal Sarah hanging from one of the racks and a jar of yams lying smashed on the floor.<p>

"What?" she snapped at Derek's bemused gaze as she lowered herself to the ground.  
>"The stupid door fell shut just as I was trying to reach up there" she indicated the topmost shelf. "And I forgot to turn on the light."<p>

She brushed past him and headed for the broom cupboard to fetch a mop. Derek stepped into the larder and stretched himself, groping around on the top shelf until he managed to reach another jar of yams.

"Here" he said, proudly presenting the jar to her as she returned with the mop. Sarah scowled at him and bent down to pick up the broken glass, leaving Derek to come to the conclusion that his help was no longer appreciated.

"I'm off to watch TV" he said, placing the jar on the counter and making his way over to the living room.

"Oh no, you're not" Sarah informed him from inside the larder. "You're on potato peeling duty."

She shoved a sack of spuds out for him and continued to mop up the floor.  
>Derek scowled.<p>

…

"We'll go out after dinner so you can try your boots, okay?"

John was unpacking his new rucksack on his bed while Cameron sat next to him scrutinizing her boots.

"Yes. Going for a walk after dinner will also assist you to digest your food properly" she told him while she turned her new boots over and over in her hands.

John looked up from his rucksack and grinned at her thoughtful expression.  
>"Why are you inspecting them so closely? There's nothing wrong with them, is there?"<p>

She put the boots down, placed her hands in her lap and looked at him with a confused frown.  
>"No. I just can't understand how you managed to buy them without my noticing."<p>

Laughing, John took her by the hands and squeezed them.

"I can tell you now, I suppose. I got the shop assistant to wrap them up for me and I bought them behind your back while you were guarding the pair for Mom" he explained, stroking her palms and adding "See, I told you I lied to you in that shop. And that's also why I didn't want you looking in my rucksack, because the parcel was in there. I'm sorry, Cameron."

Cameron tilted her head.  
>"You lied to me because you intended to surprise me. So technically, that's not lying."<p>

"You're a fast learner" he observed, smiling at hearing her use his own words.

She returned the squeeze of his hands and gazed at him gratefully.  
>"I can also tell you now, John."<p>

"Tell me what?"

"Where I went last night. Why I lied to you" she told him with a sudden look of remorse, reaching out and taking the locket hanging round his neck into her hand.  
>"I went to the shed to make your present. I'm sorry for lying to you. And for leaving you."<p>

"You know now that you didn't actually lie to me" John reassured her, letting go of her hand and letting his fingers glide up her arm to rest upon her shoulder.  
>"And you didn't leave me. You just needed to, well, get rid of me for a while. I think you managed to think up a great scheme to get it ready, Cameron."<p>

She gave him a proud smile and nodded before changing to her blank, calculating expression.  
>"Speaking of ready, dinner should be ready in two hours forty-seven minutes. That is, if Sarah follows the recipe."<br>With a wink, she added "Which also gives us some time to get ready."

"Get ready?" John echoed. "For what?"

Cameron rolled her eyes.  
>"I still need to try on my dress, John, since your mother made me leave the bathroom before I was finished. And you need to try your new trousers. I think they will look nicer than the ones I found for you."<p>

She stood up and headed for the door, waving at him before she closed it behind her. John watched her pensively, scratching his head.  
><em>Three hours to try on a dress?…<em>

With Cameron gone, John slumped back on his bed, gazing at the ceiling.  
>"Hmm, she might come in half dressed and tell me she needs help with the zip…"<p>

Shaking his head and telling himself that he was, unfortunately, not part of a soap opera where such things happen, John decided he may as well try on his new trousers now so he could then spend some time in front of his laptop while he waited for Cameron.  
><em>Think I'll have a go at Mega Mutilation part 2…<em>

The jeans were really new. That hard and stiff kind of new which usually deters you from wearing them and prompts you to put your nice old, comfortable ones back on.  
>Having pulled them up to his knees, John noticed there was one of those huge, scratchy yellow labels inside, which either gets caught in the belt or succeeds in irritating you all day by tickling your leg.<br>He tugged at it, trying to tear it out from its stitches, but it was too tough. Then he noticed it was one of those looped double labels you could get your fingers through for added strength. Twisting and pulling, John was bent double trying to rip it out, but to no avail.

The door suddenly burst open and Cameron rushed in, making him jump.  
>"I forgot my makeup, John."<p>

Feeling a little embarrassed by being caught with his trousers halfway down his legs and his fingers stuck in a label, John grinned sheepishly at her, at the same time taking in her appearance and thinking how sweet she looked. She had taken off her tracksuit jacket and was wearing her short white tank top.

Cameron stopped dead, noticing his peculiar posture.  
>"What are you doing?"<p>

"Um … it's that label, I'm trying to get rid of it" John mumbled, tugging at it. He had somehow managed to wrap the label so hard round his fingers he couldn't get them out.

"Stop it" she commanded. "You'll tear your trousers."

"I'm trying" he exclaimed, giving an almighty tug to free himself. The sound of ripping material filled the air as the seams gave way and the label was released at once together with John's fingers, causing him to stumble backwards into his bedstead.

Cameron's eyes narrowed as she ascertained the damage. Slowly shifting her gaze from the ripped trousers to a petrified John's face, she advanced on him menacingly, fixing him with the scariest robot look he had ever seen.

"Look what you've done" she said icily, closing in on him and pinning him against the foot of his bed. "I'll have to sew them up now. Get them off."

John cried in alarm as his old bed creaked ominously under the excessive weight being applied to its worn-out frame by her leaning on him.  
>"Cameron! Stop! It's going to—"<p>

Its loose screws giving way, the frame came apart with a crack and the bed collapsed under them. The left strap of Cameron's tank top tore as John clung to her trying desperately not to fall, and pulling her with him as a result.  
>With a tremendous din that shook the whole house, bed, boy and cyborg crashed to the floor, clouds of dust rising all around them.<p>

"I'm sorry, John. Are you all right?" Cameron asked as soon as the dust had settled.

"Yeah. I'm good I guess" he groaned from under her.

Another thud shook the house as John's door smashed into the wall, and Derek and Sarah came storming in, guns at the ready.

The gun dropped from Sarah's hand with a clonk.

…


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

It took Sarah about three seconds to recover from her initial shock. What she saw left no room for doubt that something terrible had just happened.  
>The collapsed bed, her son on his back with his trousers down and the cyborg straddling him, her tank top torn and hanging off her.<p>

Fists clenched, her head moving back and fourth like a pigeon's, Sarah merely stared, her outrage rendering her momentarily speechless.

"I … you…" she spluttered, her face reddening, as she took a deep breath whilst shaking.

The storm broke loose and Sarah was upon them, shouting so loudly it made Derek wince.

"I never thought it of both of you. I leave you alone for five minutes and look what happens. Did you ever think of the consequences? Do you even care? No, of course you don't."

Cameron had discreetly climbed off John and was kneeling next to him, holding up the ripped strap of her top. John had sat up and was awkwardly trying to pull his trousers up.

"Err … Sarah" Derek nudged her on the arm.

Ignoring him, she continued to rant at them.  
>"What on earth were you thinking of? Trying to work up an appetite for my turkey, were you? And look at your bed, John. For all I care you can sleep on the floor tonight."<p>

"He can sleep in mine" Cameron offered helpfully.

John screwed up his face and pressed his eyes shut.  
><em>Oh no, that was so not a good idea…<em>

"WHAT!" Sarah bellowed, causing both of them to jump.  
>"So your performance can have an encore? That's what you think, young lady. Not on your life."<p>

"Sarah, listen" Derek tapped her on the shoulder, looking between John and Cameron.

"Not now, Reese" she shrugged him off impatiently, glaring at her son and his cyborg.  
>"John, you're coming with me while little miss heavyweight here repairs your bed. We need to talk."<p>

"Sarah!" Derek urged, taking hold of her arm.

"What is it?" she asked irritably, while John and Cameron both stared at the ground looking crestfallen.

"Look" he pointed out, indicating the supposedly caught-in-the-act pair. "They're still dressed, aren't they? Well, partly, anyway. I think John's old bed just collapsed of its own accord."

"Of course it collapsed of its own accord when those two were—"

"Mom, please" John interrupted her, his face a beautiful shade of magenta. "Nothing, err, happened here. I was just trying on my trousers when—"

"With Cameron on top of you? Do you think I was born yesterday, John? I may be older than you, but I'm not that old yet."

"Sarah" Cameron put in, getting to her feet and purposely moving away from John.  
>"That's the truth. John was ruining his trousers and I was about to stop him when the bed gave way."<p>

With a frown, Sarah looked from her son to the cyborg and back again.  
>"What does she mean with <em>ruining your trousers<em>? You've only had them for half an hour."

Deciding that the truth would this time be a better ally than another white lie, John launched into explanation and told his mother exactly what had happened.

"So you see, Mom?" he concluded apologetically. "Cameron tried to stop me from tearing out the label and I fell over backwards onto the bed and pulled her with me. She had nothing to do with it."

"There you go again making excuses for her."  
>Sighing, Sarah ran her fingers through her hair and glanced at Derek who merely shrugged and grinned.<br>"Oh well. You needed a new bed anyway. Which means you can take Cameron along and buy one after the holidays" she decided, looking between a suddenly pleased looking John and a relieved looking Cameron and the heap on the floor.  
>"A <em>single<em> bed."

Derek chuckled as both boy and cyborg seemed to deflate simultaneously. Sarah turned and headed for the door, still shaking her head and muttering to herself about teenage machines and double beds.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the future saviour of mankind rose from the ruins and walked over to his cyborg protector, doing up his trousers.  
>"I think I'll get on my laptop while you try on your dress" he told her glumly.<p>

"Oh no, you won't" Sarah called from the landing. "You're on potato peeling duty for breaking your bed. And since Cameron had nothing to do with it she can clear up the mess in your room in the meantime."

Tilting her head at Sarah's logic, Cameron bent down to pick up John's mattress.

John walked round it ready to take hold of the other end.  
>"D'you need any help?" he asked, feeling guilty that Cameron had been left to do the dirty work again.<p>

Treating him to a grateful smile, Cameron shook her head.  
>"No thank you, John. I'll manage."<p>

She lifted the mattress with one arm and carried it across the room where she propped it up against the wall next to the window. John watched her return and start dismantling the remains of the frame. 

Sighing, he trudged towards the door and beckoned his uncle to follow him.  
>"Are you coming?"<p>

"Nope. I'm gonna see if I can mend your bed while you take over my kitchen duties."  
>Not meeting his nephew's eye, Derek stared shiftily at the diminishing pile of metal and wood.<p>

"Okay" John nodded. "And thanks anyway, for calming Mom down."

Derek held up a hand.  
>"Don't mention it. I was your age once as well, you know" he said with a wink.<p>

"But we didn't … oh, what's the use."

Derek grinned as he watched his nephew slouch out the door and out of sight.  
>His grin faded instantly as he turned to look at the cyborg currently removing the last piece of debris from the floor.<br>"Um … Cameron?" he asked uneasily.

"Yes?"

"Look, about you and John …"  
>He trailed off rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. Derek was no man for idle chitchat and he was also no one to beat about the bush, even if what he intended to ask her made his insides squirm.<br>"And no, I don't wanna know if it _can_ work or _how_ it might work, but—"  
><em>I'm saying this to a machine. I must be loosin' it…<em>

Cameron tilted her head.

"Only, if it does work, can you … I mean …" _Dammit._ "Look, John can't get you pregnant, can he?"  
><em>I need that beer now…<em>

She regarded him for a while with a faraway look as if she were analyzing new data. Then she put on the usual blank face she always adopted when speaking to Derek.  
>"No. That's not possible. I'm a machine. I can't have children."<p>

An utterly relieved Derek let out the breath he had been holding and gave the impassive cyborg a curt nod before he turned and left without another word.

He didn't see the sole tear leak out of Cameron's eyes and run down her cheek.

…

"You're supposed to leave at least some of the potato, John. Not peel it away to nothing."

Sarah yanked the peeler out of her son's hand and threw away the now grape-sized spud John had been busily working on for over ten minutes.  
>Taking another one from the colander resting in the sink, she peeled it in front of him in a matter of seconds and held up the result for him to see.<p>

"This is what a peeled potato looks like" she said irritably. "Honestly, John, sometimes I wonder how you expect to become the man you're supposed to be."

"General Connor doesn't peel potatoes in the future, Sarah."  
>Derek entered the kitchen and stopped at the fridge, deciding it was time for his beer at last. After his psychologically taxing talk with Cameron, he had checked his car to calm himself down and then gone to the living room to turn on the TV. He reckoned there might be wrestling on and sitting on the sofa watching television with a few beers should take his mind off of any disconcerting ideas concerning toddler terminators.<br>Retrieving a beer from the bottom shelf, he turned and nodded at his nephew, a peculiar smile on his face.

Sarah thrust the potato peeler into Derek's free hand and smirked at him.  
>"Correct. I guess that would be one of those less pleasurable tasks he would probably delegate to some wise guy."<p>

Leaving Derek to splutter indignantly and continue reluctantly on the pile of potatoes he had abandoned earlier, Sarah busied herself with tipping the jar of yams into a pot.

"Yams?" John asked, noticing the soggy tubers sliding out of the jar.  
>"I thought we were having sweet potatoes."<p>

"The larder is out of sweet potatoes" she told him curtly.  
>"Get out from under my feet, John. Find something else to do. Go and play with your laptop."<p>

"Or with your cyborg" Derek added under his breath.

An onion bouncing off of Derek's head and landing in the sink with a splash was the last thing John saw as he left the kitchen and headed for the stairs.

…

_I think I'll check up on that UFO convention again. There's something about that Abraham guy Mom told me about that just doesn't add up…_  
>The airborne onion having reminded John of a flying saucer, he decided to spend the remaining hours before dinner doing something more sensible with his laptop than blowing up virtual monsters on the screen.<br>As he climbed the stairs he thought of Cameron and the way she had dumped that _Desert Canyon Heat and Air_ guy in the middle of a mine field. He imagined her grinning at the man from behind the enclosure after having gracefully danced to safety and addressing him in his own voice. '_Neat trick. You like?'_

How John longed to see her dance.

The sound of classical music coming from Cameron's room made him stop at the top of the stairs.  
><em>That's weird. Since when does she listen to music?…<em>

Stealthily, he moved along the corridor until he was right outside her door. John was by all means no great shakes on music, and all he knew about classical music was that its composers were mostly dead.  
>He paused to listen. This sounded beautiful, he never knew music could be so … different.<p>

As he put his hand on the doorknob he was overcome by a strong feeling of uneasiness. He felt as if he were about to intrude on something, he had never entered Cameron's room just out of the blue before. Without knocking, that was.  
>Gingerly turning the knob and easing the door open, John poked his head through the gap.<br>What he saw made him freeze to the spot and just stare.  
><em>Derek was right…<em>

Cameron had changed into a grey sort of jumpsuit and was wearing flat, thin, slip-on shoes. She was moving, no, gliding in perfect sync to a dreamlike piano piece accompanied by what John thought to be a string orchestra.  
>Her steps were fluidic, as if she were as one with the music. As if she were part of it.<br>_Floating on the waves…_

Slowly, John stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He merely gaped at her, completely raptured by her dancing; her every step, her every movement in absolute harmony with the longing, passionate and yet melancholy character of the music.

It gradually faded out and Cameron lowered her arms against her sides like a dove, facing the window and remaining quite still.

"That … that was beautiful."  
>It was all John managed to say. His mouth was dry and his throat was strangely constricted. He felt all knotted up inside as if he were about to cry.<p>

She didn't respond. She continued to stand like a statue looking out the window. After a few moments John realized that this was not part of her performance and slowly approached her until he was standing right behind her.

"Cameron?" he asked hesitantly, placing his hand ever so gently on her shoulder.

She turned around abruptly, causing him to flinch and stumble backwards. Her face was blank and her cheeks were damp, as she stared up at him with her huge eyes. John had the fleeting impression that they were slightly redder than usual, but he attributed it to the sunlight shining in through the orange flowery patterns on her curtains. He knew at once though, that she had been crying.

"What's wrong?"  
>He stepped up to her and tilted his head in a fashion strangely reminiscent of hers.<p>

Cameron studied him impassively, analyzing his concerned frown, and the genuine curiosity and care his voice conveyed.

"The music. It makes me feel sad" she said tonelessly, trying hard to maintain a blank face.

"But … it was beautiful. And yeah, a little sad maybe" he admitted before looking her directly in the eyes and adding breathlessly "You were beautiful…"

Without warning she flung herself at him and wrapped her arms round him, burying her face in his chest.  
>"Don't leave me, John."<p>

John was so transfixed, he simply stood there without moving a muscle. Berating himself for being so painfully slow, he eventually lifted his arms and embraced her, pressing her body firmly against his. Cameron gasped and tightened her grip on him, causing his breath to catch in his lungs.  
><em>Good job Derek's not around…<em>

"I'll never leave you, Cameron. You know that" he whispered, stroking the back of her head and knowing she would remember.

Cameron hugged him even harder, quite forgetting her own strength. She knew he meant it right now. But would he still mean it after she told him? After he knew? Would it be possible, would he still want to be with her? She had never been so confused; she had never felt so pained in her whole existence.  
><em>It was easier before…<em>

One look into John's kind, caring eyes told her she was wrong. She would never want things to go back to how they had been before.

They stood holding each other for what seemed like hours. Time was meaningless, a mere human invention, designed to govern people's lives. It was bliss to step out of its prison cell if only for a while, and catch a glimpse of eternity. Time without clocks.

John's surroundings had melted away into nothingness. He relished in only feeling Cameron's body pressed up against him. She was so warm, so soft, and the smell of her fragrant hair made him go weak at the knees.  
>She shifted her head and looked up at him, scrutinizing him, making him drown in her eyes. He wanted to lose himself in those dark brown pools full of sadness and … longing.<br>_When I look into your eyes I can see a love restrained…_

Cameron had to literally force her system to continue to monitor her surroundings, to listen out for any unfamiliar sounds, and to check if the house was still moving, since its absolute centre had shifted slightly in the past year, 0.24 millimetres being quite a lot in the cyborg way of looking at things.  
>John holding her tight nearly made her forget her mission, nearly made her forget who she was. She pulled herself together.<br>_I will combine protection with care…_

They finally broke apart, oblivious to the fact that not even ten minutes had passed. John smiled at her, amazed at how graceful her body looked in that tight jumpsuit and just how sweet the ponytail she had done her hair into accentuated her perfectly round head and high forehead; adorable together with her puppy-dog look.  
><em>Didn't that psychologist at school say something about that guy and his baby face 'Kindchenschema' model once? I wonder if that Alison girl was just as beautiful…<em>

Cameron reached up and took the rubber band out of her hair, letting it fall down and flow over her shoulders, partly covering her face. John automatically reached up and tucked the errant strands behind her ears.

"I never knew you could dance like that" he admitted, still amazed at what he had been fortunate enough to behold and pleased that at last he had had the opportunity to witness it for himself.  
>"It was so … divine."<p>

Cameron always deported herself with such style and grace, he could think of no better word to describe those angelic movements.

"Dancing is the hidden language of the soul" Cameron breathed, her expression back to that one of longing sadness.

"I know" John said huskily. "And you're fluent in so many languages."

Radiantly lovely, but still emanating such melancholy, she leaned in and planted a tiny, yet lingering kiss on his cheek.  
>"Thank you for believing in me, John" she simply said, before she took him by the hand and led him to the door.<p>

"Where are we going?" John asked goofily, feeling blissfully light-headed, as he glided along behind her.

"We should check on the turkey. I do not want it burnt and it should be ready in twenty—"

She suddenly stopped and John just about managed not to walk into her this time.  
><em>I'm learning…<em>

"Oh" Cameron exclaimed, tilting her head. "I thought it was much later than it is. The turkey will need at least another one and a half hours until it is cooked."

"That doesn't matter" he shrugged. "I guess Mom will appreciate some help in the kitchen either way."

He opened the door for her and they headed for the stairs, Cameron idly wondering what may have been the cause of her having misjudged her internal chronometer so drastically.

…


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"You do it then, wise guy!"

Sarah's raised voice and the noise of the front door slamming shortly afterwards greeted them as they arrived in the hall.

_Oh dear…_  
>Fearing the worst, John approached the kitchen door apprehensively, fully expecting another cloud of blue smoke to engulf them when he opened it. Cameron stepped in front of him and opened the door.<br>The turkey was still sizzling away happily in the oven and was not, as Cameron had anticipated, sitting on the counter reduced to a blackened, charcoaled lump the size of a woodpigeon.

"I don't believe it."  
>John closed his eyes and opened them again, and then shook his head, but to no avail.<br>Derek was still standing at the sink, a frilly white apron tied awkwardly around his middle. Cameron tilted her head.

"Shuddup" he growled, scowling at them. "She made me wear this, said I'd only get my shirt dirty again."

"Where's Mom?" John asked on the verge of a laughing fit, as Derek wriggled helplessly, trying in vain to undo the double granny knot Sarah had tied the apron's strings with behind his back.

With a mischievous grin on her face, Cameron filed the entire scene in her recently acquired _things to annoy Derek Reese with_ memory bank.

"Your Mom has gone to the shed with her punch ball" Derek told him with a grunt, lifting the pot full of yams out of the sink and placing it on the stove.  
>"I hope she'll work some of that aggro out of her. Damn, was she in a mood again, and all because I told her the oven's temperature was wrong."<p>

John raised his eyebrows and shrugged, gazing over to Cameron who had gone over to the oven with the cookbook.

"The temperature is too low. It should be set to 350, at least" she informed them, checking the recipe against the oven's setting.

"Don't you start" Derek warned, turning angrily towards her and picking up a pair of scissors. "That's just what Sarah said. It says 180 in the book, so that's what I've set it to."

He tapped the tip of the scissors impatiently on the appropriate line of the page. John sidled over to them, and glanced at the line Derek was indicating.

"Derek's right, you know" he told her, comparing the figures in the book with the settings on the oven. "It says 180 degrees."

Cameron rolled her eyes.  
>"The units in the book are in degrees centigrade. Our oven uses Fahrenheit. It's a foreign model" Cameron explained. "180°C is equivalent to 350°F."<p>

Derek put down the scissors he had used to cut the ribbon on his apron. Tearing it off him and throwing it on the counter, he stalked past them to the living room.  
>"If you're so good at it, you can carry on."<p>

After having stared thoughtfully at the door his uncle had smashed shut behind him for a while, John turned to Cameron and sighed.  
>"Oh well. I guess it's up to us to get the rest done. What did you say? 350? So I'll crank the juice a bit, then."<p>

Cameron grinned and nodded.  
>"Yes. Crank the juice."<p>

He bent down and rotated the knob on the panel until it was just above the 350 mark.  
>"That's that done. Now how long did you say it'll take back there? One and a half hours? Then it should be ready in about an hour" he concluded happily, licking his lips.<br>"I'm starting to get hungry."

"I'm sorry, John" she said apologetically, gazing down at her feet. "The recipe says 3½ hours at 180 degrees. Since Derek had our oven set at only 180°F and the turkey has been roasting for approximately two hours at this too lower temperature, it should take another two hours twenty minutes at least to be thoroughly cooked."

"Ugh. All these maths are making my head spin" he informed her scowling.  
>"And I can't wait another two hours. I'll have to have a snack."<p>

He went over to the larder and started rummaging amongst the items on the shelves.  
>"Have you seen my <em>Crunchie Flakes<em>? I'm sure I still had half a packet left."

"No John. Perhaps Derek ate them" Cameron said innocently, hoping John would not be going to the dustbins behind the house for a while before they were emptied.

Presuming she was probably right and his uncle had finished them, he took down a tin from the farthest shelf and opened it, revealing some packets of his favourite crisps. He picked out the cheesy ones and replaced the tin on the shelf.  
>"I'm glad I hid them in there" he told her with a smile and ripped open the packet.<br>"Want some?"

"No thank you."  
>Cameron pulled a face at seeing him stuffing those crunchy cheesy things down himself again. She returned the apple she had intended to give him back to its basket with such force, she dented it.<br>_I will have to search the larder more thoroughly…_

"We can leave it in there on its own now, can't we?" John said, indicating the oven, after he had munched his way through the packet of crisps.  
>"What d'you think, how about going outside and trying out your boots while we wait?"<p>

Cameron stared blankly at the larder door before smiling sweetly at him.  
>"Alright, John. Would you please fetch my boots for me? I need to check the recipe once more."<p>

"Okay. I'll be back in a sec."  
>He hurried off to the stairs while Cameron replaced her smile with a deadly robot mask and made a beeline for the larder.<p>

…

John had picked up her boots from where she had left them standing next to his bed and plugged in his laptop to ensure it would be fully charged by the time he and Cameron would watch the movie he wanted to show her after dinner. After one last look at the sad remnants of his bed propped up against the wall he left and rushed downstairs to the kitchen.

"Here's your boots" he announced, as Cameron closed the larder door and tried in vain to draw his attention away from her wet combat boots and the footprints leading into the kitchen from the front door.

"Did you spill something?" he asked with a frown.

"No" she responded quickly, staring at him blankly. "I shook the tea towels outside and forgot to dry my shoes."

"Oka-a-ay."  
>Not understanding why on earth she would think of shaking tea towels he merely shrugged and handed her her boots.<br>"I just hope Mom won't walk in and notice the floor."

"Don't worry. It'll dry soon" Cameron assured him as she sat down at the kitchen table to take off her boots. She slipped her new ones on and rose to her feet, admiring the fluffy lining and frowning at how her tracksuit did absolutely so not go with them.

"Wait here" she said, as they entered the hall and John was wondering which coat to wear.

"What for?" he inquired whilst rummaging through the various jackets and coats hanging on the hall stand.

Cameron rolled her eyes.  
>"I need to change" she said, gesturing at her boots and trousers. "The colours don't go together."<p>

"Eh? But why did you tell me to go and get your boots if you still wanted to change?" he asked flabbergasted.

"What?" she tilted her head in confusion before revelation set in.  
>"Oh. I … I forgot I needed to change."<p>

With that she hurried up the stairs leaving John to watch her and shake his head.  
><em>So much for quantum connections…<em>

He returned to the hall stand and took Derek's thick leather coat off its hook.  
><em>This should be warm enough…<em>  
>Cursing at how heavy the coat was, he pulled out one of his scarves from the sideboard drawer. On second thoughts, he pulled out a pair of Sarah's gloves and her old woollen hat with built in earmuffs and two long tassels, as well.<p>

"Are you ready, John?"

Cameron descended the stairs wearing a pair of tight dark blue jeans tucked into her boots and a dark brown roll necked stretchy pullover which accentuated her figure to such a degree it took the wind out of John.

"Um … yeah" he stammered, forcing his gaze off of her and slipping on his jacket.  
>"Here." He held out Derek's coat and indicated for her to put it on.<p>

Noticing the way he was looking at her, Cameron slowly advanced on him with a tiny smile on her lips, purposely walking in a manner that reminded John of mannequins on stage and rendered him positively speechless.

"Am I supposed to wear this?" she breathed, lightly brushing against him and tilting her head at the huge garment.

_I know she's doing this on purpose…_  
>"Yeah … well … um … it's warm" he spluttered, forcing himself not to focus on those eyes which were currently fixed on his with batted eyelids and a puppy-dog look.<p>

"Thank you, John. You're sweet when you're speechless" she said brightly, abruptly turning around and letting him help her into the coat.

_I'll get her for this. I'll find a way to pay her back. I'll … I'll…_

The coat was miles to big for her but at least it kept her warm. Nearly touching the floor, it made her look more like a trapper than a terminator about to try out a new pair of boots. John had wound the long scarf round her neck and had insisted that she wear his mother's gloves and her old hat.  
>Thus wrapped up and prepared for any meteorological adversaries he led her out the front door into the garden.<p>

Dusk was falling rather suddenly, even though it was no later than five o'clock. The last of the sun's rays streaked through heavy, snow-laden clouds on the horizon, bathing the garden in a peculiar hazy half-light.  
>The fir trees at the far end near the fence, their branches drooping under the weight of the snow, somehow reminded John of a wedding cake he had once seen in a shop window. Giving Cameron a strange, pensive look, he shook his head and took her by her gloved hand. They slowly shuffled along in the deep snow, Cameron's boots being well worn in and their manufacturer's guarantee of being waterproof being driven to its limits.<p>

"No stars tonight" John observed, uneasily regarding the cloudy sky and wishing it were summer. He would have loved to stay out with her all night, just lying in the grass and gazing at the stars. But now the grip of winter had dressed the ground in white and grey, burying the grass beneath an icy crust and keeping all the odours of hot and joyful summer securely locked away. The smell of a freshly mowed lawn, the overpowering fragrance of June's honeysuckle weeks, the welcome freshness in the evening air after a boiling hot day.

They had stopped under the tall willow tree at the back of the garden and John leaned against its thick, ragged trunk. Cameron leaned against him and they both glanced up through the bare branches at the day's last light in the distance.

"It's like someone dying" Cameron said quietly, gazing wistfully up at the ever darkening sky.

"What is?" John asked, still lost in his thoughts.

"The day…" she paused and turned to face him.  
>"The end of the day is like… In the future you once said the end of summer is like someone dying."<p>

John put his arm around her and pressed her body against his side.  
>"That's probably because in the future I had nobody to show me how wonderful winter can be."<p>

Cameron smiled up at him and he touched the tip of her nose with his finger, making her laugh. The tasselled hat and the earmuffs tied down under her chin made her look so wonderfully adorable, John had to fight the urge to hold her in his arms and kiss her for all she was worth. The way the porch light reflected out of her eyes made his heart miss a beat.

_She's the sun…_

He remembered. Her shining eyes would always calm him down, offer him the security he had been searching for all his life.  
>Turning to face her, he pulled her towards him and held on to her for dear life, breathing heavily.<br>"Thank you, Cameron."

"For what?"

"For being here. For giving my life a purpose and making it all mean something."

She gazed at him with wide eyes, their shine drawing him closer, again making him lose himself in their depths.

"You gave me a purpose, John" she whispered, taking his hand into hers and placing it over her chest, right where her heart would be.  
>"You showed me I was not just the Tin Man. You let me into your heart. And you showed me the way to mine."<p>

She moved closer to him, nestling up against him and tilted her head back.  
>He could see golden sparks dancing about in her irises. Like stars.<br>_She's alive.  
>She's always been alive and I will love her forever. Oh god, I will love her forever…<em>

Their lips met and the last thing John saw before he closed his eyes was a faint blue glow behind her pupils. Her lips were cold but as soft as velvet, brushing against his so tenderly, almost fleetingly, with a childlike curiosity inherent in their every movement.

The blackbird which had been busily picking the few remaining berries off a thick bunch of mistletoe high up in the willow tree flew away to its hiding place, returning to the dank, dark security of the shrubs' undergrowth.

John's first real kiss, Cameron's kiss, was electric, causing his knees to give way and making him lean hard against the tree trunk for support.  
>He felt ashamed of the sudden fleeting images of being in the Jeep with Riley or in the back row of the theatre watching a school play with that Katy girl long ago. That had all been nothing, a mere fooling around. It was meaningless. He knew that now.<p>

Their lips parted just as hesitantly as they had met, as if unsure if it was the right thing to do.  
>The current that had raced through Cameron's entire body after they had closed that last remaining gap between them remained lingering, causing her to shiver, making her rest her forehead against his and relish in the memory of that first and everlasting moment of contact.<p>

John was dazed, tired, he felt as if the whole world had closed in on them, watching, waiting, only to disrupt in a silent explosion leaving infinity to keep him pressed against her forehead.

"I've never kissed anyone."

Cameron's angelic voice brought John back to the present. She was looking him directly in the eyes, her head slightly tilted, and seemed to be trying to read him in that scrutinizing way of hers.  
>He rubbed his nose against hers and stroked the back of her head.<p>

"Neither have I."

…

The house seemed a million miles away as boy and cyborg slowly crossed the snow-covered lawn hand in hand. They followed their footprints leading back home, back to the bright decorations of Christmas past, back to the kitchen with its comfortable warmth and soon to be cooked turkey.  
>But the sensations weren't the same. The footprints led to something so far away, it could no longer be reached. It had retreated, dropped back off a horizon as if it were from another time, another existence. Something had changed, they had crossed a line, some sort of boundary which allowed no turning back, and left the future wide open.<p>

_Infinity in your hands…_

With a smile, John tightened his grip on Cameron's gloved hand as they passed the distant garden shed. Patches of dim light filtering through its drawn curtains shone onto the snow outside the windows.

"I must have left the lights on" Cameron deduced, stopping to go and turn them off.

John held her back and shook his head.  
>"No, that'll be Mom. She wanted to install her punch ball and start working out before dinner."<p>

Cameron tilted her head and listened.  
>"Yes. You're right. I can hear ragged breathing and the sound of something being beaten."<p>

"Bet Derek's glad it's not him" John sniggered, as they continued along the path's outline in the snow.  
>"I'd like to have your sense of hearing. It's awesome."<p>

"No, it isn't. It makes it hard to be able to … get away from it all."

Frowning, John stopped and looked at her.  
>"Wait a minute. You thought you'd left the lights on in the shed. But if you can hear Mom from out here, why did you think that?"<p>

Her vacant, analyzing stare made John grin. It took her quite a while to come up with a satisfactory answer, which was something she of course also needed to analyze in the process.  
>"Because I … wasn't monitoring the perimeter."<p>

"Really? That would be a first. How come?" John asked curiously.

"I was concentrating on you."

John's jaw dropped as Cameron moved closer and nestled herself in his side. His pride welling up and his male ego more than satisfied, he realized that keeping the vow he had made about helping her to get away from it all was apparently not going to be as difficult as he had imagined.

"Just a second" John told her as they passed the garage. "I just remembered something."

He opened the side door and switched on the lights, hoping that Derek hadn't had the urge to hoover and polish the Jeep as well. Which he usually didn't, since the vehicle had in his opinion been 'contaminated' by metal and any TLC it received was therefore fruitless.  
>John opened the car's right hand rear door and glanced around the floor. He had to reach halfway under the front seats before he found what he was looking for.<br>He carried the screwed up photograph over to the workbench at the back of the garage and began smoothing it out on the surface.

Cameron was patiently waiting for him as he turned off the lights and closed the door behind him.  
>"What were you looking for?" she asked as he approached her.<p>

"This" John said, holding up the photograph of her so she could see it.  
>"I found it in the glove compartment yesterday and I was wondering how it had got there. I'm sure I had it in my dresser."<p>

Cameron's face fell, but the darkness prevented John from noticing.

"Why do you have my picture in your dresser?" she asked, purposely adopting her inquisitive mechanical tone.

"Um … I, err, put it there. For safe keeping, you know?" he burst out, feeling his cheeks go red and thankful for the darkness.

She merely looked at him, her face a blank mask, determined not to let him notice the sudden remorse present in her system.

Judging by the way she was staring at him, John maintained she hadn't understood. On one hand, that wasn't too bad because it saved him explaining to her why he had kept the photograph so long ago. But then, on the other hand, John felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach because she obviously hadn't understood why he had kept it.

_What the hell…_  
>"Look, I kept it because I felt that having you close to me was a good thing. I looked at it and felt safe. Can you understand that?"<p>

It took her all the CPU power she could muster to retain a blank face. She saw it in his eyes that he really had meant it, that he really had needed her all this time. If she didn't tell him it would be easier for her, but then again she would also be lying to him and he would never get to understand why she hadn't told him.

_What the hell…_  
>"I understand. I wasn't sure at the time, but I know now why you kept my photo. And I'm sorry I took it out."<p>

John froze in the midst of climbing the steps to the porch.  
>"You what?" he exclaimed incredulously. "You took it? But why? And how did you know it was there?"<p>

She let her gaze drop to her feet as she explained in a tiny voice full of remorse and disappointment.  
>"I removed it from your dresser because I did not want you to get into trouble with your family. I found it accidentally one day while I was checking the house for threats and bugs. I didn't understand why you should choose to keep my picture, since humans only do that with people they care about."<p>

The breath was knocked out of John's lungs as he realised how hard they had made it for Cameron, how terrible her day to day existence must have been. He swore he would make her feel wanted every second of every day for the rest of his life.

"One day I saw your mother putting some of your cloths in your dresser. I was afraid she might find the photo so I decided to take it out. I hid it in the Jeep. I knew nobody would find it in there, Derek never touches the Jeep because of me, and even if it had been found, it would not have got you into trouble. I'm sorry, John."

He looked at her aghast, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.  
>"But why didn't you just throw it away? Why hide it in the Jeep?"<p>

Her huge eyes locked onto his and her blank look gave way to her longing expression.  
>"Because … I thought … I hoped it had been precious to you."<p>

John pulled her into his arms on the porch stairs and buried his face in her scarf.  
>Breathing heavily, he reassured her in a constricted voice.<br>"It was. And is. Like the key to your heart."

…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

The house was dark as Cameron dried her shoes and shut the door behind them. They took their jacket and coat off and hung everything on the hall stand, including John's scarf and Sarah's hat, and headed for the kitchen. The droning and intermittent flickering of the living room television paired with Derek's roars of laughter sparked their curiosity and made them stop at the door.

Derek was sitting in his reclining chair, an empty six-pack of beer beside him on the table, and was watching what appeared to be some sort of educational programme probably aimed at children. A choir of blokes dressed in Mountie uniforms and some funny looking geezer in a checked shirt and leather trousers were singing about how nice it is to be a lumberjack.  
>John raised his eyebrows at the line '<em>I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars<em>' and steered Cameron away towards the kitchen, shaking his head at his uncle who had started to drum his heels on the floor.

"Good job we didn't move to Canada" John said as they entered the kitchen.

He depressed the button on the front panel of the oven which turned on the interior light. The turkey had taken on the mouth-watering colour of honey and was sizzling away merrily. The spuds around it had turned golden brown and the onions looked as if they had been caramelized.  
>Cameron opened the oven door and the delicious smell that wafted out and filled the kitchen made John's stomach rumble. She switched on the extractor fan and pulled open a drawer. Taking out a long knife, she dug it slowly into the turkey's breast, retracted it and repeated the procedure on a leg.<p>

"What are you doing? Is it ready yet?" John asked anxiously, afraid he might drop dead from undernourishment any minute.

"I'm testing to determine if the meat is cooked properly. It should be ready in about forty-two minutes, judging by its texture" Cameron deduced, rinsing the knife and laying it aside for later usage.

"I'll be dead by then" John groaned, leaning heavily on the sideboard and ostentatiously placing his head in his hands.

The touch of Cameron's fingers on his back, gently rubbing him in circles, made him stiffen.  
>"You won't die, John. I'll protect you. Always."<p>

He turned to face her and cupped her cheek in his hand.  
>"I know. And even the most sophisticated cyborg alive can't speed up cooking time, can it?"<p>

Cameron smiled and shook her head.  
>"I'm sorry, John. But we still need to warm up the yams and prepare the Yorkshire pudding mix. The turkey should be ready by the time we're finished."<p>

"What Yorkshire pudding mix?"

"The one Derek erroneously bought some time ago instead of Sarah's usual pancake mix. She threw the carton at him but it didn't burst. I put it in the larder."

Sensing a golden opportunity to wolf down another packet of crisps without Cameron noticing, John offered to go and look for the ready made mix while she busied herself with heating up the yams on a low heat.  
>Glancing over his shoulder to see that she wasn't watching him, John entered the larder, took down his secret tin and opened it.<br>He dropped it with a clatter as an apple, two carrots and a lettuce leaf presented themselves inside. Frantically searching the shelves to find out if he had maybe picked up the wrong tin by mistake, John didn't notice the faint, but contented smile on Cameron's face as she heard the clattering of the tin and John's indignant spluttering coming from the larder.

A disheartened John trudged grumpily back to the oven and banged the packet of '_just add water_' Yorkshire pudding down on the counter, whilst munching away at his carrot.  
>Cameron regarded him with a sweet smile.<br>"I didn't know you liked carrots, John. You should eat them more often. They are good for you and their high content of provitamin A will help you maintain a healthy immune system."

John glared at her, muttering about people nicking his supplies and all that nonsensical health food being rabbit food anyway.  
><em>If I didn't know any better I'd say that she's got something to do with it…<em>

He turned over the packet and read the directions.  
>"Twelve minutes in the microwave!" he exclaimed, turning the packet over and over again, hoping to find proper directions somewhere else. There were none.<br>"Do you think that'll work?"

"I don't know, John. We'll just have to try and hope for the best."

She opened the packet and tipped the mixture into a bowl. Having added the exact amount of water the recipe had asked for she mixed it thoroughly and ladled the finished dough into small glass cake moulds that were probably supposed to be used for muffins.

"I never even knew we had all this stuff" John admitted, well and truly amazed at how many cooking utensils were hidden away in their kitchen.  
>Sarah never used anything apart from a frying pan and a bowl to mix pancakes in. He supposed she would be equally surprised at their actually quite versatile kitchen with its considerable array of equipment.<p>

Cameron placed the bowls with the mixture in the microwave. It still smelt of last night's pizzas. She left it open for the smell to dissipate and John's mouth started to water.

"I could kill for a pizza" he said dreamily, immediately earning himself a glare from her.

"And I could kill when people start throwing snowballs at each other and let my cooking get cold" she snapped.

John gulped.

…

A crash in the living room made the whole house shudder. Cameron instantly reached out and yanked John behind her.

"IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL PREPARING THE TURKEY?"

The roar seemed to make the windows rattle. Cameron relaxed and turned to John mouthing the words _oh dear_. It was obvious to them what had happened. Sarah had walked into the living room and had found Derek in front of the telly. Cameron deduced that the door to the living room would open in about 7.2 seconds and started timing.

_CRASH_

_6.9 seconds. Not bad…_

The door flew against the wall and Sarah stalked in looking livid. She stopped dead as she saw her son and the cyborg standing at the stove.  
>"So Derek wasn't lying" she said in amazement. "You two are doing the cooking."<p>

"See? I told you so."  
>Derek came hobbling in, rubbing his leg where Sarah had kicked him in the shin. He leant on the sideboard awkwardly and grimaced in pain.<br>"Dammit, Sarah. Can't you stick to your punch ball?"

"Sorry, Reese" she mumbled, going over to the oven and looking inside.  
>"Isn't it ready yet?<p>

"It will take another twenty-five minutes" Cameron informed her.  
>"We were just about to prepare the Yorkshire pudding and the yams."<p>

"What Yorkshire pudding?"

Cameron rolled her eyes and ignored her. She turned and headed for the dining room, addressing John as she passed him.  
>"Would you start the microwave in ten minutes, John? It's all set, all you have to do is press <em>play<em>."

_Play?…_  
>John scratched his head and gave her a blank look.<br>"Sure, but—"

She interrupted him impatiently.  
>"And please ensure that the yams don't burn. Give them a stir."<p>

"Alright" John nodded and picked up the ladle Cameron had left next to the stove.

She entered the dining room and went over to the cabinet. Its doors were stiff as if it hadn't been opened in years. Cameron decided that she would offer to cook Sunday dinners as well as breakfast in future. Cooking was something else she had found she enjoyed doing apart from dancing. It pleased her to arrange food tidily on plates and neatly lay the table.

"Here, let me help you with this."  
>Sarah had appeared next to her wearing an ashamed sort of frown.<br>"You don't have to do everything, you know."

"Thank you, Sarah" Cameron said with a confused blink.

The woman's change of attitude towards her was so profound, it unnerved her. Not so long ago Sarah and even John had dumped the dirty washing in her hands just because she never slept. Cameron had even done the ironing that day, just to get it out of the way.

The two physically so different and yet mentally not quite so unlike women bustled about the dining room, clearing away the Christmas morning leftovers and laying the table in an attractive and decorative manner.

"There" Sarah announced happily, placing the last napkin next to its plate.  
>"That looks nice. I think we can take that bird out of the oven now."<p>

Cameron nodded and they set off back to the kitchen.

They found Derek and John both glued to the microwave as if they were watching a football match, or worse, a cheerleading contest.  
>Cameron tilted her head as she noticed the microwave's countdown timer. According to its reading it still had seven minutes to go whereas it should by rights have been finished long ago.<p>

"How come it's still on?" she inquired, causing Derek and John to jump and turn.

"We … err … weren't sure … um…" Derek began with a splutter, shuffling his feet.

"Well, we … err … couldn't find … there was no _play_ button" John blurted out, his ears going pink. "But the yams are done" he added sheepishly.

Cameron's mouth fell open and Sarah let out a snort of laughter.

…

"See what I mean about them telling you what to do?" Derek complained after Sarah and Cameron had ordered them to go and sit down at the dining room table and just wait without touching anything.  
>"It was bad enough before without being pushed around by your machine."<p>

John grinned.  
>"Don't tell me your Jesse pushed you around as well."<p>

Derek glared sternly at him.  
>"She was never my Jesse."<p>

He pulled out a chair and collapsed onto it looking sombre, leaving his nephew to lower his gaze apologetically to the floor. The memory of Jesse having killed an innocent girl and having betrayed him and his General still hurt. That was something Derek could never forgive. Jesse had not been AWOL, she had been a deserter. And she would have stopped at nothing to get her own way, he knew that now.  
><em>She wasn't any better than the machines…<em>

Fixing his nephew with his bright gaze, Derek needed to get a few things straight.  
>"John, I want you to hear this in no uncertain terms. There are machines out there to kill you. We all know that. But there are also men, humans, out there to kill you. Greys, deserters, whatever you choose to call them. They're all the same to me. Scum."<p>

He leaned forward across the table giving John such a piercing look it made him shudder.  
>"I want you to stay close to Cameron at all times. No more running off on wild goose chases or dumping her for some idiot girl, d'you hear me? I don't care if you two start playing at being boyfriend and girlfriend or if you continue your brother and sister act which no one is gonna believe anyway. As long as you keep her with you. Got that?"<p>

John was completely taken aback at his uncle's request, which sounded more like an order anyway. He knew Derek to have had much more experience than he'd ever have in the lines of security, perhaps only being surpassed by Cameron. He managed to bite back the rebellious retort that had been on his lips, because deep down he knew his uncle was right. He had been a fool, he could have got himself killed just like that.  
>No Christmas, no General Connor, no Cameron. In the real world, you don't get up again like in <em>Mega Mutilation part 2<em>.

"Yeah, I got that" John sighed and sat down opposite him. Derek relented and leaned back in his chair.

"Derek?"

"Yup?"

"Why did you say no one is going to believe Cameron and I being brother and sister? I think we didn't get along too bad like that."

Derek let out a derisive snort.  
>"Come off it, John. If you'd seen the way you look at her sometimes. Jeez, it's as if you were gonna pounce on her."<br>He shook his head and frowned.  
>"Nah, that's not gonna work. Brothers and sisters don't act that way, unless they're…, you know. And the way she looks at you! I used to want to send a DU round her way every time she gave you that puppy-dog look of hers."<p>

John's eyes glazed over as he thought of his beautiful cyborg and relished in the wonderful memory of their first kiss.  
>Derek sighed and rolled his eyes.<br>"See what I mean? What was it like, then?"

"Eh?" John was brought back to the present with a jerk. "What was what like?"

"Kissin' her of course. What was it like?" Derek grinned.

"What! I … how do you know … I mean…" John spluttered, going bright red.

"That goofy look of yours speaks volumes, laddie" Derek nodded knowingly and winked.  
>"I may be a soldier and an old man compared to you, pal, but don't forget I was your age once, too."<p>

Having this kind of talk with a resistance soldier from the future who happened to be his uncle was just too weird to be true. John blinked and slapped his cheek. It hurt.  
><em>Jeez…<em>

Just as he was about to utter some kind of excuse and find a get-out of the situation, Derek held up his hand.  
>"Forget it. It's nothing to do with me. Just as long as you don't go round wreaking any more beds."<p>

"B … but…" John stammered feebly, trying hard to refrain from turning from bright red to purple in front of his uncle.

"Yep" Derek went on thoughtfully. "I guess that's something you two will just have to figure out by yourselves. Even though I can't imagine how—"

"I have an anatomically correct body."

Both soldier and boy jumped and looked up to see Cameron striding gracefully towards the glasses cabinet with a haughty expression on her face, her head held high.  
>Derek grinned as John buried his face in his hands.<p>

…

Sarah stood the bottle of wine she had brought up from the cellar between the two candles Cameron had lighted on the table. Their flickering orange light reflected off the two wine glasses she had taken out of the cabinet and placed next to Sarah's and Derek's plates.

"Only two?" Derek remarked, raising an eyebrow at her.  
>"I know John's underage but I'd have thought an advanced cyborg like you would have a glass or two."<p>

"Maybe if I did I wouldn't be so advanced" she deadpanned.

Derek scowled and thought of the empty six-pack of beer lying on the side table next to his reclining chair. He decided he wouldn't overdo it and settle for only a few glasses tonight.

Stifling a grin and admiring the way Cameron was getting better and better at shutting Derek up, John's mind wandered back to the two police men who had thought she'd been out cold.  
><em>I wonder if terminators get tipsy…<em>

"Sarah, can you serve the food?" Cameron asked after she had finished lining up the Christmas crackers and the twigs of holly Sarah had placed on the table earlier.  
>"John and I need to change."<p>

"Change?" Derek inquired quizzically. "What the hell for?"

Ignoring him, Cameron went over to John and held out her hand. He took it with a smile, but felt a little irritated all the same that she hadn't forgotten all about getting dressed up for dinner like he had sincerely hoped.  
><em>I don't want to wear that dreadful shirt…<em>

"Fine" Sarah nodded, replacing the corkscrew in the cabinet and closing the doors.  
>"See to it that he changes his trousers and doesn't wear that disgusting T-shirt."<p>

"I swear."

Cameron pulled a silently protesting John up the stairs with her.  
>"Hurry up, the food will be served soon."<p>

"I'm coming. But I'm still wearing a T-shirt underneath" he insisted defiantly.

Cameron rounded the corner to the landing and stalked off towards her room.  
>"Not that one."<p>

Muttering about uncomfortable clothing and idiotic formal conventions, John entered his room and closed the door. His shirt was still draped over the back of his chair over the trousers she had chosen for him in the morning. He slipped off the new ones with the ripped stitching and pulled on the other ones.  
><em>Damn. They're still as hard as a board…<em>  
>Then he reluctantly took off his comfortable T-shirt and went over to his dresser. After pulling an awfully new looking black one out of the drawer, he started rummaging around under the neatly stacked piles of clothing – <em>Mom's been in here again<em> –, somehow still not believing that Cameron had taken out and hidden his photograph of her.  
>It was, of course, not there.<br>Wondering if it was just another one of the stupid things he did, John went over to his desk and picked up the folded piece of wrapping paper with her writing on it. He then walked over to the heap on the floor which accounted for his torn new jeans and bent down to retrieve Cameron's photograph from the back pocket.  
>Smoothing it out once more, he placed it on the very bottom of the drawer beneath his T-shirts together with the wrapping paper.<p>

_At least the T-shirt makes it bearable_, John thought, as he tucked the shirt's stiff material into his trousers and fastened the buckle of his belt.  
>"I just hope she won't notice that it's the old belt" he muttered, turning to look in the mirror and perfunctorily combing his hair with his fingers.<p>

A knock on the door made him turn.  
>"Yeah. Come in, I'm decent."<p>

The sight of her left John's mouth hanging open as she stepped into his room and closed the door behind her. She had done up her hair into a bun and had applied some greyish-blue eye shadow that made her eyes look even larger and darker then usual. She was wearing that breathtaking dark blue satin dress and a pair of black, strapped high heeled shoes.  
>She looked absolutely lovely.<p>

"Ah … are you ready?" John burbled, gawking at her sweet smile and how she seemed to literally glide towards him.  
><em>How can something be so beautiful, so innocent and so sexy at the same time?…<em>

"Almost" Cameron breathed, stopping in front of him and turning around so her back was facing him.  
>"The zip has got stuck. Can you try and free it? I fear I might break it, if I try."<p>

Wondering if dreams come true at Christmas, he reached up and gripped the zip of Cameron's dress between his fingers. His heart leapt into his throat as he realized it had got caught on a piece of material of her black lace bra.  
>Feeling his knees giving way, John tugged at the zip. It moved freely, but started pulling at the bra. He saw at once what the cause was. One of the lacy applications on the bra's fasteners had looped itself round the zip and was too entangled for John to be able to get it off without unhooking it.<br>_Oh Jeez…_

"Um, Cameron, I'll have to … err … it's got caught on … um…"  
>His hands shaking, John gripped the black material between his fingers and unhooked the two small metal hooks. The tension was released and he was able to unravel the loop that had wound itself round the zip.<br>Breathing heavily, he gripped the two ends of her bra again with the intention of hooking them back together.  
><em>What? Why the hell are there three pairs of hooks?…<em>  
>Deciding he would use the last pair owing to Cameron's waist being so thin, he tugged until the hooks lined up and slipped into their eyelets.<p>

"That's too tight, John. My bust requires the middle hooks" she announced, twisting uncomfortably.

_I'm not going to faint … I'm not going to faint…_  
>Trying his best to remain conscious, John undid her bra once more and refastened it using the hooks she had requested. He then pulled up her zip, careful not to get it caught on anything else.<p>

"That's much better" Cameron said, turning around to face him with a bright smile.  
>"Shall we go?"<p>

Wishing his head would stop spinning, he nodded and they slowly made their way to the door.

"Cameron?" John whispered as they reached the stairs.

She stopped and gazed at him looking more adorable than ever.  
>"Yes?"<p>

He took a deep breath and gripped the banister for support.  
>"You're beautiful."<p>

"Thank you, John" she breathed in his ear as she kissed him on the cheek. She then took hold of his arm and they descended the stairs, John rather dazed but happier than he had ever been in his life.

…


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Sarah almost dropped Derek's plate on his head as John and Cameron entered the dining room.

"Look at them" she exclaimed, feeling tears well up in her eyes at how grown-up her little boy seemed all of a sudden.

She realized he no longer needed his mother around him, her son had found his companion and she had been driven out. Strangely enough, it didn't bother her in the slightest. She knew the cyborg would never harm him, she would never betray him or break his heart or do all the other things human girls would do to hurt him. In this insane world she was the sanest choice.

"Neat" Derek remarked appreciatively, as he took in John's tidied up appearance and admired the elegant dress the cyborg hanging onto his nephew's arm was wearing.

John pulled out the chair opposite his uncle for her and Cameron sat down with a gracious smile. Sitting down on the chair next to her, he picked up his napkin and placed it on his lap.  
>"Don't want to ruin these trousers as well."<p>

Sarah returned with Derek's plate laden with grub. She had dished him a whole turkey leg and a mountain of yams and potatoes, with the Yorkshire pudding on top.  
>"Derek's the hungriest. I'm sorry, Cameron" she said, hurrying off with Cameron's plate.<p>

"Look at that lot" Derek exclaimed gleefully, while he watched the steam rising from the still sizzling turkey.

"Don't let it get cold, Reese" Sarah cried as she rushed in again with Cameron's plate now full. "You don't have to wait for us."

"Oh yes, I do" Derek retorted. "I haven't lost all my table manners, Sarah."

Sarah raised her eyebrows and sniggered, causing Derek to scowl.

"I've given you breast, Cameron. It should be more tender and easier for you to … um, digest" she announced a little sheepishly as she placed the plate in front of the cyborg.

"Thank you, Sarah. Leg wouldn't have been a problem, though" Cameron told her shyly, analyzing the food on her plate and pleased at how succulent and perfectly done the meat had turned out to be.

"I didn't know how much you'd want, Cameron, so I cut your piece of breast in half. You can have the other half too, if you like" Sarah offered at seeing her stare at her plate.

"No thank you, Sarah. I'm good. Someone else can have my other half."  
>With an appreciative smile Cameron turned to John who was eying his mother eagerly, waiting for her to dish him his plate.<p>

Sighing at her impatient son, Sarah whipped out his plate from under him and headed for the kitchen. "What would you rather have, John? Leg or breast?"

"Um…" he mumbled, looking from his uncle's to Cameron's plate.  
>"I think I'll have Cameron's breast" he called after his mother.<p>

Derek snorted, an evil grin on his lips.  
>"Yeah, I thought you might say that."<p>

"DEREK!"  
>Both John and Cameron had opened their mouths to voice their indignation in unison.<p>

Derek merely sniggered, pleased that he had trodden on a nerve and relished in their affronted expressions.

"You can be glad Mom didn't hear that, Derek" John hissed darkly, taking hold of Cameron's hand and squeezing it in an apologetic sort of way.

"What shouldn't I hear Derek say?" Sarah demanded curtly as she entered the dining room carrying John's plate and glared at the man who had suddenly turned a shade of ghostly white.

John smirked at his terror-stricken uncle and adopted a wildly ostentatious innocent look. "Well, Derek here was just saying…"  
>He grinned at his uncle's frantic but hardly discernable head shakes and his wide eyed stare.<br>"…that he misses the cranberry sauce."

Derek sank back in his chair as if the world had been taken off his shoulders.

Sarah rolled her eyes and put the plate in front of her son.  
>"You'd think he'd have enough with that lot."<p>

While his mother took her own plate back to the kitchen and John's mouth started to water at the sight of his steaming nosh, Derek lightly kicked him under the table and mouthed _I owe you one_.

They finally tucked in once Sarah had seated herself with a huff because Derek had been too slow to get up and pull out her chair for her. He sheepishly poured her a glass of wine instead.  
>It was marvellous, the meat was wonderfully soft and the potatoes were beautifully done. Even the microwaved Yorkshire pudding had come out alright and was nice and fluffy and had not, as John had feared, turned into rubber. The only thing actually missing was the cranberry sauce. But then again, John thought, you couldn't have everything in life.<p>

…

"Oh dear. No, I'd better not" Derek forced out between stifling a belch and a hiccup as Sarah offered him another wing. "I don't want to overdo it."  
><em>As it is I'll be farting all night. Turkey's prone for that…<em>

He had gobbled up his plate in no time at all and had greedily devoured the second leg Sarah had brought him while she had refilled her son's plate. Cameron's eyes had narrowed at the speed at which John had eaten his food and she decided she would apply more drastic measures to his eating habits in the near future.  
><em>It seems simply getting rid of his unhealthy foodstuff will not achieve the desired result…<em>

Considering getting rid of Derek Reese who was obviously no help in the matter, Cameron poked John in the ribs causing him to spit out the piece of wing he was currently sucking.

"Stop that" he whined, coughing and wiping his mouth on his napkin.

"If you stop bolting your food" she teased, daintily cutting a thin slice off her last potato.  
>"You should cut smaller pieces, John. And chew them more thoroughly. It'll help you to digest better."<p>

"Pointless" Sarah remarked, taking a sip of wine. "I've been trying to teach him that basic truth for seventeen years. He just won't listen."

"We'll see."  
>Smiling serenely, Cameron snatched John's plate away from him and cut up his remaining yams and the lower portion of the wing's meat into small bite-sized pieces.<br>Ignoring his spluttering protests, she slid the plate back over to him and folded her arms.  
>"There. I'll do that every time for you until you learn. I'm sure you don't want your sister cutting up your meals for you in public…"<p>

John dropped his cutlery with a clatter.  
>"Sister? What do you mean <em>sister<em>? We can't go about as brother and sister anymore" he pointed out in alarm. "Not now we're … err … I mean…"

Cameron's smile widened evilly and Sarah gave her an appreciative nod.

"Exactly" she told her son curtly. "So you'd better listen to your girlfriend or you'll be living as brother and sister again."

Derek nearly choked on his wine out of pure habit at hearing the mention of the word _girlfriend_ used in close proximity to female metal.

_Your girlfriend…_

John smiled fondly at recalling his conversation with the fat lady in the shoe shop. He looked down at his food which Cameron had cut up and sighed. Popping a small bit of yam into his mouth, he slowly started to chew. Sarah watched breathlessly and shook her head in disbelief. Cameron gave a curt nod to the table at large.

It was going to take John quite a while to finish his plate since he had switched to what he called _slow motion eating_. His mother had already passed him twice with an impatient sigh waiting to clear his plate away.  
><em>If it was slow they wanted, then slow is what they'd get<em>, he thought. He was going to milk this for all it was worth.

"Your sister can also ask for a doggy bag and take your food away from you" Cameron stated icily, immediately prompting John to finish his now cold food in a normal sort of way. She watched him contentedly as he got up and carried his empty plate into the kitchen.

"Come on" Derek grinned holding up one of the colourful Christmas crackers after John had returned to his chair. "I haven't pulled one of these since I was a kid."

Cameron tilted her head.  
>"What do they do, John?"<p>

Smiling, John picked up his cracker and gripped one of its ends.  
>"You hold it here" he instructed her, guiding her fingers to the correct spot.<br>"Now grip it very tightly and when I say _now_, you pull."

She took hold of her end and gripped it where he had shown her.

"Now!"

Cameron's hand shot backwards giving the cracker such a yank, it nearly caused John to topple off his chair. It burst with the loudest _crack_ Derek had ever heard and the spark it created briefly filled the air with the smell of brimstone.  
>Cameron threw herself at John and knocked him clean off his chair onto the floor, spreading her body out over his. His chair toppled over with a crash.<p>

Derek roared with laughter as Sarah came rushing in from the kitchen brandishing a scrubbing brush. "What on earth—?"  
>She stopped dead as she saw John sprawled on the floor, his arms flailing, with Cameron on top of him. Shaking her head, she turned on the spot and stalked back to her kitchen sink.<br>"No, I'm not asking anymore. I don't want to know…"

"What are you doing?" John cried in disbelief, trying in vain to wriggle out from under a rather heavy and alarmed looking Cameron.  
>"That wasn't an explosion, they're supposed to do that."<p>

She lifted herself off of him immediately and straightened her dress before sitting back down looking hurt.  
>"You could have told me, John. That wasn't funny."<p>

He went up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.  
>"I'm sorry, Cameron, I just wasn't thinking. I haven't pulled one for ages. The last one was at Todd and Janelle's, I think."<p>

She looked up at him disappointedly.  
>"I've torn my dress."<p>

With a guilty groan, he noticed the tear along its seam under her left arm.  
>"That's my fault. Shall I sew it up for you?"<p>

Cameron eyed him sceptically.  
>"No thank you, John. I would like to be able to get my arm back through the sleeve when I put it back on."<p>

Derek let out a howl of laughter as his nephew was left speechless. Wiping the tears from his eyes he waggled his cracker at him.  
>"Come on, give us a pull. I want me silly hat."<p>

John stood his chair back up and sat down, taking hold of the other end of Derek's cracker. He glanced at Cameron for her consent which he received in the form of a nod. He didn't want her on top of him again. Not on the dining room floor anyway.

_Well, actually—…_

"Pull!"

Derek gave an almighty tug and a _crack_ almost as loud as before filled the air. John winced, half expecting to be tackled by Cameron again.

"Hah! I got the goodies" Derek cried happily, emptying the cracker's contents onto the table.

"That reminds me" John exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Where's our cracker?"  
>He searched the floor and found his half over by the kitchen door.<p>

"Here it is, John" Cameron said, dangling the larger half from her fingers. "It was under my chair."

"Great" John approached her contentedly. "That's yours then. Let's see what's inside."

She tipped the cracker up and gave it a shake. Bits of coloured plastic tipped out of it which turned out to be a tiddlywinks game, together with two small pieces of paper, one with writing on it and a pink one that seemed to be folded up. She tilted her head.

"Just watch Derek" John told her with a chuckle.

His uncle had already put his plastic frog aside and had unfolded his paper hat. He put it on his head looking quite ridiculous. Cameron picked up the pink piece of paper and unfolded it, too. With a smile, John took her hat and placed it over her head. It was too big and it slipped backwards onto her ears, making it look vaguely like a tiara.

"Princess Cameron" he chuckled. "It's just perfect."

She gave him a shy little smile and took him by the hand. John wished they had been alone so he could have kissed those smiling lips and just held onto her. She was as precious to him as a jewel, like royalty.  
><em>My Princess Cameron…<em>

"_Why did the chicken cross the road?_" Derek read from the small snippet of paper before he turned it upside down. "_To get to the other side._ Ha ha, very funny indeed."  
>He shook his head and screwed it up.<p>

"Hey! What about the proverb?" John cried, pointing at his uncle's fist.  
>"There should have been one, there usually is."<p>

"You're right, I forgot about that" Derek admitted, smoothing the crumpled up piece of paper out again and turning it over.  
>"<em>A fart a day keeps the wife at bay.<em>" 

John roared with laughter as Cameron pulled a face in disgust.

"Well, you can't deny that" Derek sniggered before gesturing at Cameron.  
>"Let's hear yours, then."<p>

John was half expecting Cameron to come up with something like _I'm sorry, Derek. I'm not a performing flatulist_ but she merely picked up her snip of paper and read aloud.

"The fears of yesterday are the dreams of tomorrow."

…

It was as if someone had dowsed him with icy water. At once bereft of his joking, jovial mood, John stared at her in awe. He took in her angelic form, the warm glow of her eyes, her moist smiling lips. What she had read out was so uncannily true it made him shudder. Not so long ago had he feared her kind beyond anything else, yet now his nightmares had given way to dreams come true, since she had entered his waking world.

He had always dreamt about her, ever since they had first met. What would you expect?

After all, she outwardly resembled an attractive young girl and he was a teenage boy. But John had let his dreams remain dreams, knowing what she really was.  
>He had been so wrong.<br>He remembered the first time he had clapped eyes on her, a pretty girl in his classroom suddenly speaking to the new weird kid in a hushed voice while their teacher droned on.

_What's your name?…_

_John…_

_Cameron…_

He had never seen her before, she had transferred into his form from some other school. He remembered her smile as she had approached him confidently after class.

"John?"

_Like a whisper she arrived and danced into my life…_

"John!"

_She's like a leaf … on the wind…_

"JOHN!"

"Wh … what? What is it?" he stuttered in alarm, jerking back into reality as both his uncle and Cameron had shouted his name in unison.

Derek rolled his eyes and Cameron stared at him with a remotely concerned expression.  
>"We still need to pull your cracker" she said timidly.<p>

"Oh. Yeah. Right" he realized, taking hold of it while Cameron gripped the other end.  
>"Try not to pull my arm off this time, okay?" he grinned.<p>

The cracker burst with a small _pop_ and John was left with a tiny game of skittles, a snippet of green paper and his idiot hat. It was yellow, just like Derek's.

"_An apple a day keeps the doctor away_" he read with a sigh, thinking about how his crisps had somehow morphed into carrots and apples.

"Very wise" Cameron said with a serene smile. "Have you eaten your apple, John?"

He shook his head.  
>"No, I only had one of the—. Wait a minute. How did you know about the apple?"<p>

Cameron performed the cyborg equivalent of a gulp and immediately put on her most innocent face.  
>"What apple, John?"<p>

"Eh?" he exclaimed with a frown. "But you just said—. Oh, never mind."

He put on his paper hat and turned over his piece of paper.  
>"<em>What goes 'croak-whirr'? A frog in the blender.<em>"

"Ugh. Corny" Derek sneered in disgust as John screwed up the paper and picked up Sarah's cracker.

"I'll go and pull Mom's one with her" he told them, and headed for the kitchen.  
>Stopping at the door, he turned to Cameron with a puzzled look on his face.<br>"That reminds me. You didn't tell us your joke."

She picked up the scrap of paper and let it dangle from her fingers.  
>"There was none, John. It must have been a dud."<p>

With the uncanny notion that it was definitely not a dud but something more like a prophecy, John entered the kitchen and walked up to his mother who was standing at the sink wrapping the turkey's leftovers in foil.

"I don't know why you bought such a big one" she panted, tearing off another piece of foil and covering the carcass.  
>"Everybody seems to make that mistake, it even says so in my cookbook."<p>

"We just thought Derek would be eating a few more helpings" John shrugged apologetically.

"Never mind" Sarah appeased, dumping the wrapped up turkey back in the oven.  
>"We can have cold turkey sandwiches and I'll make soup with what's left over."<p>

An impressed John silently thanked Cameron for having chosen the book in the first place. Sarah obviously seemed to like it, seeing she had remembered some of the recipes on what to do with your leftover Christmas dinner. And so it was all due to Cameron really that he had been spared the atrocity of having to endure Christmas pancakes.

"Come on, Mom. Pull your cracker" he said, tapping her on the back with it.

She turned and gripped the end. The last cracker burst with a small _crack_ and Sarah was left with a blue hat and something that looked like a miniature curling set. She picked up the small snip of paper that had dropped to the floor and held it up to the light.

"_An apple a day keeps the grocer very happy._"  
>She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh well, that's true, I suppose. Listen to this:<br>_What do you get if you cross a German Shepherd with a cartoon mouse? A Jerry dog._"

Sarah groaned and John sniggered.  
>"They must get worse every year, you know. Come on, put on your silly hat, even Derek's wearing his."<p>

She reluctantly slipped the flimsy paper hat onto her head and followed her son back into the dining room. Derek roared and pointed at her, the appearance of the usually as-hard-as-nuclear-nails Sarah Connor wearing a blue paper party hat being too much for him.

"So" John put in over the racket his uncle was making. "Who's for ludo, then?"

Derek shook his head, rubbed the tears out of his eyes and coughed.  
>"I'm sorry, John. I'm too tired today. I hardly had any kip whatsoever last night. You lot have a go without me."<p>

With that, he got up wearily, stretched himself and held his stomach.  
>"I'm off to bed. Thanks for the food, Sarah. It was great. I'll need to put a few things straight in the future."<p>

He winked and walked out into the hall, leaving her looking slightly puzzled.  
>Sarah yawned and cracked her knuckles.<br>"Derek's right, John. It's been a long day. I'm just too tired as well."

She ruffled her son's head and dumped her hat on the table.  
>"We'll play ludo some other day. Thanks for the presents, you two."<p>

After giving them a nod, she left and went upstairs. Cameron could hear her boots clomping along the landing towards the bathroom.

"Oh well, I suppose we could have a go ourselves" John suggested, before he glanced over at the clock on the wall.  
>"But then again, this is just the time for a movie. What would you like to do, Cameron?"<p>

Cameron tilted her head and weighed the possibilities.  
>Sitting at the dining room table and having John show her how to play ludo would offer her the possibility to stay close to him until he went to bed. Watching a movie with him on the living room sofa would offer her the possibility to stay even closer to him until he went to bed.<p>

"Can we watch a movie?"

"I was hoping you'd say that" John grinned, getting up and holding out his hand.

Cameron took it and they walked out of the dining room, leaving the warm, cosy atmosphere of Christmas with its smells and sparkling lights behind.

…


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"I thought we're going to watch a movie" Cameron said, tilting her head and wondering why John had led her past the living room and up the stairs.

"We are" he chuckled at seeing her puzzled expression.  
>"But the film is on my laptop and besides, it's cosier in my room."<p>

She nodded, even though she didn't really understand where John wanted to sit and watch it. There was no sofa in his room.

It was dark on the landing because the bulb still hadn't been changed. John tried to make out the entrance to his room in the gloom of the corridor.  
>Cameron's arm shot out and took a firm hold of his just as his foot caught in something large and soft lying on the floor outside his door, causing him to stumble.<p>

"Thanks" he mumbled, squinting at the object on the floor.  
>"Your night vision thing is a real boon. What the hell is that thing?"<p>

"Your coat" Cameron informed him, bending down and picking it up.  
>"It's dry now and it doesn't smell anymore."<p>

He scratched his head in confusion.  
>"Wonder how it got there? I dumped it in the bathtub. Must have been Mom…"<p>

Cameron nodded as he opened the door.  
>"I heard Sarah in the attic this morning. She must have hung it up there to air and dry. It was sunny today and the attic will have been warm enough."<p>

He flicked the light switch and his face fell. Where his bed should have been was only a bare patch of dusty floor. His gaze wandered over to the window where Cameron had dumped the remains of his bed.

"Dammit" John exclaimed, clenching his fists.  
>"I'd forgotten all about that. We'll just have to pull up the mattress."<p>

Cameron glanced from John to the bed's remains and back, feeling a little sorry for him. And for herself. She understood now where he had intended to watch the movie with her. 

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you tell Sarah it was your fault the bed collapsed? If it hadn't have been for me it would still be standing" she inquired, curiously trying to read him before he spoke.

Taking hold of her hands and giving them a squeeze he fixed her with a piercing gaze.  
>"Mom would have done her nut if she'd have found out that you had something to do with it. Besides, if I hadn't ripped my trousers, I'd still have a bed."<p>

"But you took all the blame" she pointed out with a frown.

"I'll always take the blame if it's for your sake."

Cameron opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Her system momentarily froze up, such was her astonishment at John's remark.

"Can you help me with the mattress?" he panted, tugging at one end.

"We can watch the movie on my bed" she offered with a bright smile, having found her voice again and relishing in the sudden warm feeling flowing through her at the prospect of being able to be even closer to her John this way. She had chosen wisely in deciding against playing ludo.

"Um … well, yeah. Why not?"  
>He let go of the mattress and gulped, not understanding why he felt so terribly nervous all of a sudden. There wasn't really any difference if they watched it on his bed or any bed, after all.<p>

Standing outside her room with his laptop under one arm and the charger awkwardly wrapped round it since the battery always seemed to empty at the most crucial moment, John felt his stomach contract.  
>This was only Cameron's room and they were simply going to watch a movie on her bed, that was all. But then again, he had never really been in Cameron's room before yesterday, and even though he didn't feel he was intruding on something like he had earlier on when he had watched her dance, it still seemed as if he would be crossing another line stepping inside.<p>

She opened the door and switched on the lights. Her room was clean and tidy. It had a pristine, unused air to it, like a spare bedroom kept at the ready for a nagging mother-in-law's surprise visit. John glanced around. Her bed looked like nobody had ever slept in it, or even used it at all. Her desk was bare apart from a lamp and a notepad, and her dresser and wardrobe conveyed the strange impression of existing merely for decorative purposes.  
>The only thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the big dent in the wall and the small heap of dust and plaster on the floor below it which had been created by the doorknob.<p>

Cameron went over to the window and drew the curtains while John uneasily set up his laptop on her bedside table. Not so long ago had he done exactly the same thing while she had been lying there motionless, her shining eyes blank and staring. With a shudder, he turned to see what she was doing. Somehow, he just needed to know where she was.

She had gone over to her desk and had pulled out a drawer. Adding a run once entry to her task scheduler, she made a mental note to clean up the pile of dust first thing in the morning.  
><em>I should have removed it yesterday. This is unacceptable…<em>

She stood a candle on the desk and struck a match. Its flickering, orange glow made John look up again from his laptop.  
>"What are you doing?" he asked breathlessly, as she lit the candle before striding over to the door and turning off the lights.<p>

Picking up the woollen blanket they had used to cover her yesterday from the back of her chair, she went over to the bed and sat down next to John, placing her hands in her lap and gazing up at him with a demure puppy-dog look.  
>"I don't know. It just feels like something I should do."<p>

Noticing that his hands were literally shaking, he wondered what on earth was wrong with him as he climbed onto the bed and built up a pile of cushions so they could lean comfortably against the wall. He pulled the blanket over himself, flapped half of it back away from the space next to him and placed his laptop on his thighs.  
>Cameron gracefully slid in to the space he had created for her and pulled her half of the blanket over herself.<p>

"Are you warm enough?" he inquired huskily, as he put his arm around her and clicked the keyboard's assigned play button.

She nestled herself up against his side and nodded.

…

The two hour movie had just been the right length. It had ended at exactly the same time at which Cameron's candle had burnt down and gone out with a sputter. They were left in total darkness apart from the computer screen's glow and the lights of the distant street lamps shining in through the curtains.

John powered down his laptop and placed it next to him on the floor before switching on her bedside lamp. He lay back again and Cameron rested her head on his shoulder. They had snuggled up even closer to each other during the film. She had enjoyed their closeness so much, it had even taken her attention off the movie. Listening to John's breathing and his heart beating had filled her with a feeling of relaxation and comfort she had never experienced before.

"Well, what did you think of it?" he asked, taking her hand into his and interlacing their fingers. "It must have been even better for you since you understand Japanese."

"Yes. But some of the subtitles didn't exactly match the dialogue" she told him, before turning her huge shining eyes onto him.  
>"The ending was sad though."<p>

"You mean because of the cyborg girl dying?"

"Yes. That as well. I mean because she was simply replaced by the human girl and he seemed to have instantly forgotten all about her" Cameron elaborated sadly.

"But she was just a copy of the human girl. He had built her as an old man to exactly resemble his dream girl he had met as a boy. Which had been the same girl in the end, after all." John pointed out, glancing into Cameron's slightly disappointed face.  
>"He'd sent her back in time to himself so she could alter the future and save him from being killed or injured. And the message she played said she'd be what he had always been looking for. She even had some of the girl's mannerisms."<p>

Cameron swallowed and sniffed in such a human fashion, it startled him. She pulled the blanket higher over herself and wriggled down into her pillow, not looking at him.

"If I were to be replaced, would you forget me?" her voice came from somewhere in the pillow.

"What?" John exclaimed in shock, turning onto his side to look at her.  
>"No one can ever take your place, you know that."<p>

"But I'm just a copy, too, John. When you meet Alison Young you will fall in love with her. I look like her. I have some of her memories. But I'm not human."

She said this with such finality in her tone it tore at his heart. In some ways, the plot of the movie had uncannily resembled their own lives, and John immediately wished he had not shown it to her.

She lowered her tearful gaze to the locket dangling from his neck.  
>"I will never be like Alison. I cannot bring her back for you."<p>

Tears ran down her cheeks as John's breath caught in his throat. He felt as if someone had just hit him over the head with something heavy.

"What are you saying?" he cried in dismay. "I know you're not Alison. Heck, I don't even know this Alison chic you and Derek are always on about. And I don't care, either."

A sudden rage took hold of him. He had tried so hard, he had done everything he could think of to convince her, to make her believe that he really cared for her. Why was she putting this Alison girl between them?  
>Something he had started to believe ever since the incident with Vick's chip but had chosen not to mention boiled to the surface together with his rising temper. He took a deep breath to calm himself and not to let his anger at his future self get the better of him.<p>

"Cameron, I think I know what happened. There's something about this Alison girl that doesn't add up. I think I must have liked her in the future, or been in love with her, or whatever. And I think I sent you back because you look like her, and because I couldn't bear that anymore."

His breath came out in short rasps, as he tried desperately not to lose his composure.

"If I'm right, then that General Connor you and Derek and all the others seem to glorify was nothing but a heartless, selfish jerk. I'll never become him, and I'm proud of that. I may become a General, but I'm staying myself."

Noticing he had unintentionally raised his voice, he paused and looked into Cameron's shocked face.  
>"I'm sorry for how he treated you, Cameron. He may have been your friend but I don't think much about him only liking you because you looked like her."<p>

"That's not how it was, John" Cameron explained quietly. "At first, maybe, but he knew all along what I was. He may not have appreciated that, but he accepted it. We trusted each other. I don't know if he really was in love with Alison Young, I can only guess he was because people were forbidden to mention her name after her … death. Drastic measures were applied should anyone speak of her in front of him – and I mean drastic."

"I bet they never found her body" John said pensively, monitoring her reaction. She had never before mentioned that Alison had actually died.

Cameron stiffened and her left hand began to twitch. John immediately placed his own over it and caressed her palm. She took hold of it and he could feel the erratic movement of her fingers applying great pressure to his with every spasmodic jerk.

"It's not your fault" he suddenly said, moving closer to her and cupping her cheek in his free hand. "No one can ever hold it against you. It was Skynet. It's always Skynet."

She looked at him in utter devastation, as if she were holding the breath she never had.  
>"How do you know?"<p>

Her voice was a mere whisper, her surprise evident in her almost pleading tone. John stroked her cheek and sighed.

"Every time a terminator has impersonated someone this person has died. Remember George Lazlo? He was taken over by Cromartie. Remember Vick Chamberlain? His body must be rotting somewhere. My grandmother was killed and the T-800 impersonated her voice. My foster parents were dead when I called them and I had an impostor on the other end of the line. It's always the same, Cameron."

He paused to rid his voice of the bitter tone it had adopted, not wanting her to think he held anything against her. Because he didn't. And he never would. Skynet had killed all those people. He didn't even hold it against the other machines. They had been corrupted, programmed to kill, mere automatons bereft of their own personality. He had seen behind the programming of Uncle Bob. And he had seen behind Cameron's a long time ago, even if he had denied himself the truth.

"I know you killed Alison Young. And I know you had no choice. Like I said, it's not your fault."

Cameron gripped his T-shirt and started sobbing into his shoulder. He stroked her head and held her tight until her body ceased to shake and she turned huge tearful eyes up at him. He smiled and cupped her cheek.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me. I know you can't" he said gently, planting a fleeting kiss on the tip of her nose.

"No, John, I want to tell you."  
>She rolled away from him and pushed herself up abruptly, throwing her hair back and sitting to her full height. Her voice was strong and clear as she spoke, not in the least mechanical and in a defiant tone borne out of her own conviction.<p>

"I killed Alison Young. She lied to me and I broke her neck. My mission was to kill you and still is. That directive is still somewhere inside me. You thought you would be able to delete it when you offered to reprogramme me, but you only managed to circumvent it, to bury it. I didn't know that then, but I know that now. That is why we sometimes go bad."

John stared at her in fascination. She had managed to override that directive still buried deep inside her system and now she had also managed to override her firewall, her mental block or whatever it was that had prevented her from accessing her memories or disclosing any information about herself. Utterly amazed, he nodded for her to continue, not wanting to interrupt her at this early stage of her new development.

"I had no control over my emotions, John. Alison Young lying to me made me angry. I did not know my own strength, but the most shameful thing was that I felt no regret after having killed her. I had to abide by my mission, even though I started questioning its purpose. You know the rest."

Her shoulders slumped as if she were exhausted and she placed her hands in her lap. John put his hand on her knee and gave it a gentle rub.

"Yeah, I guess I do" he admitted, before picking her up on something she had mentioned.  
>"You said I <em>offered<em> to reprogramme you. I always thought I'd sort of captured you and just gone along with it, you know?"

"No. Like I said, you _offered_. Your future self never hurt me, nor made me do anything against my will. That is why I trusted him."

John rubbed his chin sceptically.  
>"Oh well, perhaps I wasn't such a bad guy after all."<p>

Cameron took him by his hands and pulled him up into a sitting position. She gave him a small smile and her voice seemed to convey a sense of pride.  
>"But he never treated me the way you have, John. I want you to know that. He never saw past my programming as you have done. You found the tin man's heart beneath the metal, John. And I found the wizard."<p>

Giving her hands a squeeze he shook his head and chuckled.  
>"You know, I never thought you'd have known the Wizard of Oz. When did you read it? At night when you read the dictionary and the cookbooks?"<p>

"No. I read it in the future. It was your favourite book and you asked me to read it to you."

John's jaw dropped as revelation set in.  
>"So that's why Derek went to all the trouble of getting it. It's the same copy, isn't it?"<p>

Cameron nodded and began caressing his palms. He merely shook his head in total amazement at the weirdness of it all, what with time travelling books and cyborgs reading bedtime stories to him.

"You know" John went on pensively, his face taking on a nostalgic expression.  
>"I used to love it when Mom read it to me. And then I stopped reading it because it made me sad thinking of my childhood and all that. D'you think you could read it to me sometime?"<p>

"If you like."

John smiled gratefully at her while she continued to stroke his palms.

"Funny" he said with a grin. "I always thought I would read it to my own child one day."

Her face fell and she let go of his hands immediately, sitting up rather stiffly again.

"What is it, Cameron? Did I do something? Did I say—?"

"I can't have children, John. I'm a machine" she interrupted mechanically, putting on her blank face.

John could see tears welling up in her eyes again, as he realized what he had said and what she must be thinking. Mentally kicking himself for being such an unfeeling ass he leaned forward and put his arms around her, pressing her body against his.

"That's not what I meant, Cameron. It was just something I used to think when I was little. Something I used to wonder about."

He rubbed her back in a circular motion, hoping it would comfort her. He could feel her tears on his skin, running down his neck onto the collar of his T-shirt.

"And anyway" he continued in a voice laden with emotion and conviction.  
>"I don't think John Connor has children in the future, does he? And I don't think I will either. What if Skynet got hold of them and used them against me? No, Cameron, I don't think so. I could never live with the burden of knowing that I would be endangering their entire existence. You were right when you said being John Connor is lonely."<p>

In a voice broken by sobs, Cameron spoke hoarsely into his ear.  
>"What if you meet Alison? She has already been born. She will live. When you meet her, will you leave me?"<p>

_I should never have shown her that damn film…_  
>"Cameron. She'll never ever be you, she'll be a different person. I don't care that she looks like you or that you share some of her memories."<p>

He took a deep breath and held her even tighter, racking his brains for something to assure her that he would never choose anybody over her.  
>"Remember that film Derek was watching? That spaceship one he called us in for to see your double? D'you think if I ever met that girl I would leave you for her? Even though she looks a lot like you, she'll never be <em>you<em>, Cameron. She's only some actress, playing a part, following a script. And Alison's just some other girl that looks like you on the outside. And that's just it. Like I told you before, it's what's inside us that counts. Nobody will ever be like my Cameron inside and I could never love anybody apart from my Cameron."

Cameron sniffed and looked up at him in amazement. She pulled back a little to dry her eyes on the sleeve of his T-shirt. He grinned and put his finger on the tip of her nose.  
>"See? Things like that, that's just <em>you<em>. D'you think I'd let anyone else use my T-shirt as a tissue?"

She offered him one last sniff and a sheepish little smile, before she tilted her head back and looked him directly in the eyes. 

"Promise?"

"Promise."

…


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

They moved closer, never breaking eye contact, until their lips met. It was just like before, a timid, hesitant kiss governed by insecurity and restrained longing. He put his arms around her and drew her into a loving embrace, pressing her body against his while brushing his lips fleetingly, almost teasingly against hers.  
>Cameron scrunched up her face and gasped as she felt the warmth of his body, his increased heart rate and the unprecedented sensations his hand in her hair caused. Subconsciously, she dug her fingernails into his back, holding on to him, pressing him against her, making him hers forever.<p>

"I love you, Cameron. I've always loved you" John panted, reluctantly pulling back and trying to get his breath back.

His cheeks were flushed, his lips felt dry and he wished he'd remembered to clean his teeth. But Cameron didn't seem to care. There was something in her eyes he'd never seen before, something more than longing. He knew what it was at once. It was love, Cameron's love, and she was showing it to him in her own special way, more than any words would ever be capable of.

She tilted her head and moved towards him, her lips slightly parted, as if in anticipation of things yet to come, sensations unheard of coursing through her.

"I love you too, John."

Her pupils glowed bright blue as her lips crashed against his, causing him to draw a sudden sharp breath. She locked her arms round him in a death grip and pressed him so tightly against her, he thought his ribs might snap any minute.  
>Her body was so soft and warm, not at all cold and rigid as he had imagined it to be. Her lithe form was so flexible, it astounded him, fascinated him, made him want to find out more.<p>

John's lips left hers with a protesting smack as he sat up straight, breathing heavily. Cameron fixed him with her eyes wide open, the blue glow behind her irises gradually ebbing away.

"Did I do something wrong, John?" she inquired innocently, suddenly sounding very unsure of herself.

"No, Cameron. It's just … I don't want to … I don't want you to think I love you for all the wrong reasons. I mean, you're beautiful, you're sexy, and you're gorgeous. And I love all that about you, too. But I want you to know—"

She silenced his verbal diarrhoea with a tender kiss on his lips. After a confused and somewhat irritated blink, he nodded and she pulled back with a smile.

"I know that, John. I've always known that. I gave you the key to my heart, remember?"

With a relieved sigh, he nodded and lay back on her bed.  
>"Your bed is so comfortable, I could just fall asleep on it."<p>

"Then why don't you?" she breathed, laying down next to him and resting her head on his chest above his heart.

He looked at the top of her head aghast.  
>"What? You mean … you think I could? You wouldn't mind?"<p>

"Of course not, John" she said, tilting her head back to look at him.  
>"But on one condition."<p>

"Yeah?"

"May I hold you as you fall asleep?"

His breath left his lungs at once, causing him to cough. Sleeping in Cameron's bed was one thing, but going to sleep next to her in her bed was something entirely different, something he had long ago secretly wished he could do, even as he had spent the night in his room with Riley.  
>In a daze, he simply nodded, feeling his head spin.<br>_I wonder if dreams coming true can make you pass out?…_

Cameron smiled and got to her feet in her usual single fluidic motion. She walked across the room to her dresser and opened a drawer.

"What are you doing?" John asked in alarm, noticing she had taken out a pair of mauve shorts and one of her white tank tops.

She turned to face him and rolled her eyes.  
>"I need to change, John. I can't go to bed with my dress, it would get ruined even more."<p>

Recalling his earlier assumptions about what Cameron would look like wearing pyjamas, he supposed he was about to find out.  
><em>Those shorts are hot…<em>

She sauntered up to him and turned his back to her.  
>"Can you undo my zip? I don't want it to get caught again."<p>

"G … gah" John burbled, thinking of those black lacy things he had brought her and which he was obviously going to behold in their full glory. Getting up shakily, he took hold of her zip and gently pulled it down, taking great care not to get it caught in her bra. He didn't think his current mental state would allow unhooking it again and staying conscious.

"Thank you, John" she said brightly before she walked across the room to the door.  
>"I'll be back" she said with a wink.<p>

…

John wasn't quite sure if he should be annoyed or pleased. One part of him had actually hoped Cameron would change into her pyjamas right next to him, whereas another part of him had told him to flee before it was too late.  
>He needed to go to the bathroom, too. He hadn't cleaned his teeth yet and he wanted to change his clothes as well, meaning he would have to go and get a fresh pair of shorts and a T-shirt from his room.<p>

Just as he had got up, the door opened and Cameron quietly nipped in wearing her pyjamas and looking so adorable he just stood and gaped at her. She padded over to her chair and hung her dress over its back, placing something else on the seat which John wasn't able to discern due to the bedside lamp's dim bulb.

"I'll just go and change" he said, as soon as he had managed to move a muscle again. 

Cameron nodded and tiptoed over to the bed. She lifted the woollen blanket off and folded it up while John headed for the door. Passing her chair, he was able to see what she had placed on it apart from her dress. Those black lacy things were lying there, seemingly winking at him. He shook his head and stepped onto the landing, taking one last look at Cameron bending down to fold the blanket. The back of her shorts, the lacy things on the chair and the fact that she had taken _only_ her pyjamas to the bathroom leaving no room for imagination.

John filled the sink with icy cold water and stuck his face in it. His cheeks felt as if they were on fire. The cold slowly eased the numbness in his head, permitting his mind to catch up with his body and helping him to calm down.  
><em>I wonder if she knows what she's doing to me?…<em>

He dried his face, pulled the plug and watched the water gurgling down the plughole, draining away just like his loneliness had in the past few days. Having dumped all his clothes in the washing basket, he pulled on his new shorts and T-shirt. He then cleaned his teeth in record time – Cameron was waiting – and rummaged in the mirror cabinet for his mouthwash. After a quick gargle he was all set. Quickly dashing across the landing and cursing the cold floor, he heard a clap of thunder in the distance. Looking up, he saw raindrops on the window. This meant it must have got warmer and the snow would soon start to thaw. Christmas was over for another year but it didn't matter to him. He would never forget tonight.

…

Cameron had already got into bed and had pulled the blanket over herself. She smiled as he opened the door and rushed over to her. John lifted the blanket and climbed in beside her. He still couldn't believe this was happening; this was something that happened in movies, but not to everyday people, and shouldn't be happening to the future leader of mankind either.  
>But there was no doubting that sweet smell and that silky hair flowing over his chest as he put his arm around her and Cameron rested her head on his shoulder. They were here and it was real and John thanked his stars and all the ghosts of Christmas for his luck.<p>

A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room and Cameron tensed, gripping his T-shirt. The following rumbling thunderclap made her flinch.  
>"There's a storm coming" she said uneasily.<p>

John switched off the bedside lamp and kissed the top of her head.  
>"I know."<p>

She snuggled up to him making him feel so happy, he thought his chest might explode. Becoming gradually accustomed to the darkness, he could see the reflections of the street lamps in her eyes as she gazed up at him in adoration.

He took hold of her hand and laced his fingers through hers.  
>"I've never felt so safe in my life. Nothing can get past you."<p>

Cameron smiled and caressed his thumb.  
>"Right now that wouldn't be too difficult."<p>

John felt his eyelids droop and blissful warmth spread through his entire body, a feeling of security he never knew existed.

"All my life I've been on the run. There was no place to find shelter, nowhere to feel safe."  
>He buried his nose in Cameron's hair and sighed.<br>"Now I've finally found home."

Another flash of lighting and a tremendous clap of thunder disturbed the room's tranquillity. Cameron flinched and screwed up her face, pressing her body firmly against his.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you" he promised her, as the rain lashed against the window.

…

Summer.  
>Sunlight reflected off the waves as they rolled up onto the beach and broke with a flourish of lace. His dream girl danced out of a wet wave and splashed him with salty water. He ran after her trying to catch her and dunk her in the sea. She squealed and fled, spraying sand out from under her feet. He caught up with her, pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and deeply. They sank to the ground and lay intertwined on the wet sand, oblivious to their surroundings and to the incoming tide which gradually splashed around their bodies.<p>

Sunlight tickling his face made John open his eyes. The coarse sand was suddenly so soft. He shook his head before he remembered where he was.  
>He was in Cameron's room, in her bed, and it was not part of his dream. She was still lying on his shoulder tightly gripping his T-shirt. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be actually sleeping.<br>John lightly kissed the top of her head. She stirred and let out a sigh so full of contentment it made John grin.

"Sorry" he whispered. "I didn't want to wake you. I just couldn't help it."

She slowly opened her eyes, batted her eyelids at him and smiled.  
>"Good morning, John. Did you sleep alright?"<p>

He yawned and stroked the bare skin under her tank top's side while she caressed him, drawing little circles just above his belly button with her thumb.  
>"Better than I've ever slept in my life. I never want to get up again."<p>

As if on cue, his stomach rumbled. Cameron giggled.  
>"Can you do that again?"<p>

"No, I'm afraid not" he said with a laugh, gripping her side and giving her a squeeze.  
>"But don't worry, you'll hear it again soon. I'm hungry enough."<p>

He stretched himself and his stomach let out another gurgling sound.  
>Cameron grinned and slapped him playfully on the belly.<br>"Stop that" she ordered with a giggle. 

"Hey. You said you wanted more of it and then you tell me to stop it" he said in mock exasperation. "Women. They never know what they want."

In a flash, she had climbed on top of him and put her arms around his neck.  
>"I'm not a woman, John" she said in her most mechanical tone paired by her best scary robot face. "And I know exactly what I want."<p>

She broke into a mischievous grin and narrowed her eyes before she pressed her lips against his. He felt the last of his resolve leave him as she ran her fingers through his hair and pressed her body against his.

The door flew open and hit the wall with a crash, and Cameron immediately deleted her scheduler's task.  
><em>What's the point?…<em>

"SO!"

John jumped but not very far owing to Cameron still glued to his lips. He mumbled something incomprehensible and started fidgeting in vain under her as he saw his mother approaching them.

"I thought as much" she said, folding her arms and tapping her foot on the floor.  
>"When I saw your non existent bed I knew exactly where I'd find you."<p>

Cameron removed her lips from his with a smack and John worked his usual de-escalating magic.  
>"Mom … I … we … um … ah."<p>

Sarah rolled her eyes.  
>"I'm not interested, John. All I wanted was to ask you if you two would mind nipping down to the store and stocking up on some food. We've run out of cereals and Derek's worse than a three-year-old when he doesn't get his breakfast."<p>

John's state of bewilderment lasted for quite some time. Even after Sarah had left and closed the door advising them to lock it in future he had still not closed his mouth. Cameron sighed and kissed him on the cheek before she reluctantly climbed off him and went over to her dresser for a new set of underwear.  
>As soon as she had stood in front of her mirror and had slipped her fingers into the waistband of her shorts she heard a strangled cry and the stamping of feet before her door closed with a bang. Satisfied, Cameron got a pair of jeans and a pullover out of her wardrobe and placed them together with the underwear on the dresser.<br>Grinning and shaking her head at her John's modesty, she opened the window and pulled back the sheets to let them air.  
><em>What a beautiful day…<em>

Presently, she got dressed, opened her new makeup set and tried out her new makeup remover before applying a trace of fresh eye shadow. Glancing down onto her desk she noticed her gun lying on the swivel chair where John had placed it the day before yesterday.  
><em>I was wondering where it had got to. I sort of like that gun…<em>

After having heard John leave the bathroom and dash back to his room, Cameron checked her appearance in the mirror once more before going to the bathroom herself. She picked up the dirty washing and stuck the gun into her waistband.  
><em>Back to business…<em>

…

Cameron was already in the kitchen making tea as John shuffled down the stairs in his worn-out jeans and a fresh T-shirt that looked like it had served as family moth's Christmas dinner.

"Thanks" he said, as Cameron handed him a cup of tea.

He went over to the larder in search of his cereals.  
>"That's funny, I'm sure I had a supersize packet of <em>Stickyloops<em> left."

"I already told you we're out of cereals" Sarah exclaimed impatiently.  
>"Why do you think Derek's gone back to bed again? <em>No point in getting up without me breakfast ready<em>, he said. Honestly, the things I have to put up with."

"I suppose Santa must have eaten them together with my crisps" John suggested, going over to the sink and looking out the window.

Cameron grinned knowingly and decided to buy him that packet of muesli she had envisaged.

"It's a lovely sunny day" he said, leaning on the counter while sipping his tea.  
>"If it stays like that the snow will soon be melted."<p>

"Let's hope so" Sarah agreed cautiously, pouring herself another cup of coffee.  
>"It'll be nice to be able to see the garden again."<p>

"Yeah" John confirmed, gazing dreamily over at Cameron.  
>"And it'll soon be safe enough to go for a walk on the common again."<p>

"Safe!" Sarah interjected, nearly spilling her coffee.  
>"Nowhere is safe, John. Don't you ever think that."<p>

With a perfectly relaxed smile, John slowly walked over to Cameron. He put his arm around her and faced his mother defiantly.

"You're wrong, Mom" he said calmly.  
>"Here is safe."<p>

And Cameron smiled.

…

The end

Author's note & quotes:

This final part concludes my Christmas story. I hope you enjoyed it.  
>Fan mail and criticism is greatly appreciated, should you find any continuity mistakes or spelling errors I have missed, please do not hesitate to point them out to me.<br>Thank you for reading.

The as far as I know fictive game of _Mega Mutilation part 2_ is taken from J. K. Rowling's _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_ where it was referred to as _part three_.

The phrase _Time without clocks_ is the title of a novel by Joan Lindsay.

The phrase _When I look into your eyes I can see a love restrained_ is taken from the song _November Rain_ by _Guns N' Roses_.

The _Lumberjack Song_ belongs to _Monty Python's Flying Circus_.

The phrase _Like a whisper she arrived and danced into my life_ is taken and adopted from the song _Tonight_ by _Reamonn_.

The movie Cameron and John were watching is the 2008 Japanese film "Cyborg Girl", sometimes also referred to as "Cyborg She". I think it is an unusually well done ripoff of the terminator movies and also the series and anybody interested in TSCC should give it a try.

The dialog in the 'bedroom scene' in the middle of chapter fifteen is taken from the 1992 motion picture _The Bodyguard_.

The main characters in the story unfortunately still belong to Twentieth Century Fox…


End file.
